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Full text of "Thirty years' view; or, A history of the working of the American government for thirty years, from 1820 to 1850. Chiefly taken from the Congress debates, the private papers of General Jackson, and the speeches of ex-Senator Benton, with his actual view of the men and affairs: with historical notes and illustrations, and some notices of eminent deceased contemporaries: by a senator of thirty years"

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THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW; 


OB, 


A  HISTORY  OP  THE  WORKING  OP  THE  AMERICAN 

ft 

GOVERNMENT  POR  THIRTY  YEARS, 
FROM  1820  TO  1850. 


FROM  THE  CONGRESS  DEBATES,  THE  PRIVATE  PAPERS  OP  GENERAL  JACKSON, 

AND  THE  SPEECHES  OF  EX-SENATOR  BENTON,  WITH  HIS 

ACTUAL  VIEW  OF  MEN  AND  AFFAIRS : 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS,  AND  SOME  NOTICES  OF  EMINENT 
DECEASED  COTEMPORARIES. 


BY  A  SENATOR  OF  THIRTY  YEARS. 

7 


IN   TWO   VOLUMES. 
VOL.    II. 


NEW    YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

84«  AND  848  BROADWAY. 

LONDOK:    16  LITTLS    BRITAIN. 

1868. 


KF  3o^oi  s^l 


Entered  ooeording  to  act  of  CoDgress,  in  the  year  1856,  hj 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  OfBce  of  the  District  Coiurt  of  ihe  United  States  for  t 
Southern  District  of  New  Tork. 


CONTENTS  OP  VOLUME  H. 


L    InaQgimtloii  of  Mr.  Yan  Bnren     ...        7 
n.    Financial  and  Monetary  Crisi»— Qenenl  Soa- 

penalon  of  Specie  Pajmenta  by  the  Banka  0 

nL    Preparation  for  the  Diatreas  and  Soapen- 

aion 11 

17,    Progreaa  of  the  Diatrea^  and  Prellminarlea 

for  the  SaapenAon 16 

T.    Aetnal  Snapenaion  of  the  Banka— Propaga- 
tion of  the  Alarm      80 

TL    Tranamigration  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
Stetea  ftx>m  a  Federal  to  a  State  Inatlta- 

tion 88 

TIL  Effeeta  of  the  Snapenalon— 'Ctoneral  Derange- 
ment of  Bnalneaa— Snppreaaion  and  Bidi- 
eole  of  the  Specie  Oanenoy— Snbmlaalon 
<^  the  People— Call  of  Oongreaa      .  86 

Tin.    Extra  Seaaton— Meaiage,  and  Beoommendar 

tiona 88 

DL    Attaeka  on  the  Meaaage— Treaauy  Notea  88 

X.    Betention  of  the  Fourth  Depoait  Inatalment        86 
XL    Independent  Treaenry  and  Hard  Money  Pay- 

menta 88 

XIL  Attempted  Beanmptlon  of  SpedePaymenta  48 
XIIL  Bankrupt  Act  againat  Banka  ....  48 
ZIT.    Bankrupt   Act    for   Banka— Mr.  Benton'a 

Speech 45 

XT.    DiTOTce  of  Bank  and  State— Mr.  Benton'a 

Speech 66 

XTL    Firat  Begnlar  Seadon  under  Mr.  Tan  Bu- 

ren'a  Adminiatr^tlon— HIa  Meaaage  66 
XTIL    Pennaylvania  Bank  of  the  United  Statea— 
Ita  Uae  of  the  BeAinot  Notea  of  the  ex- 
pired Institution      67 

XTHL    Florida  Indian  War— Ita  Origin  and  Con- 
duct        70 

XIX.    Florida  Indian  War— Hlatorical  Speech  of 

Mr.  Benton 78 

XX.    Beaumptlon  of  Spede  Paymenta  by  the  New 

York  Banka 88 

XXL    Beaumptlon  of  Specie  Paymenta-^Hiatorlcal 

NoUeea— Mr.  Benton'a  Speech^Extraota        86 


XXIL 

xxm. 

XXIT. 
XXT. 

XXTL 

XXTIL 

XXTIIL 

TTfT 

XXX 

TTTT 
XXXIL 

xxxm. 

XXXIT. 

XXXT. 
XXXTL 


Mr.  day^  Beaolntlon  In  Faror  of  Beaum- 
Ing  Bankii  and  Mr.  Benton'a  Bemarka 
upon  it .*      .       81 

Beaumptlon  by  the  Pennaylvania  United 
Statea  Bank ;  and  others  which  followed 
herlead 84 

Propoeed  Annexation  of  Texas— Mr.  Prea* 
ton's  Motion  and  Speech— Extracta  84 

Debate  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, Personal  and  Political,  and  lead- 
ing to  Expositions  and  Tlndicatlona  of 
Public  Conduct  which  belong  to  Hla- 
tory 87 

Debate  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Cal- 
hoxm— Mr.  Clay's  Speech— Extracta  101 

Debate  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
—Mr.  Calhoun's  Speech— Extracts  106 

Debate  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
— Bejoinders  by  each  .       .     118 

Independent  Treaaury,  or,  Dirorce  of 
Bank  and  State— Passed  In  the  Senate 
—Lost  in  the  House  of  Bepresenta- 
tlTca 184 

Public  Lands— Graduation  of  Price— Pre- 
emption System— Taxation  when  Sold     .     186 

Spede  Baala  for  Banks— One-third  of  the 
Amount  of  Liabllitiea  the  Lowest  Safo 
Proportion— Speech  of  Mr.  Benton  on 
the  Bediarter  of  the  District  Banka   .         US 

The  North  and  the  South— ComparatlTe 
Prosperity— Southern  Discontent— Ita 
True  Cause 180 

Progress  of  the  Slayery  Agitation— Mr.  Cal- 
houn'a  Approral  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise        184 

Death  of  Commodore  Bodgers,  and  Notice 
of  hla  Life  and  Character  ....     144 

Antl-dnelling  Act 148 

Slayery  Agitation  in  the  Houae  of  Bepre- 
aentatlTes,  and  Betlrlng  of  Southern 
Members  firom  the  Hall       ...         100 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  11. 


XXXVH 
XXXVnL 

TTTTT, 

XK 

TT.T, 

XUL 

XLIV. 
XLV. 

JLYl. 
ZLYIL 

XLvm. 

L. 
LL 

LOL 
LIT. 


LV. 
LVL 


LVIL 

Lvra. 

LZ. 

LZL 

Lzn. 
Lzm. 

LZIY. 
LXV. 


PAOa 

AboUtionlsts  ClBastfled  by  Mr.  Glay^Xn« 
tru  Donoonoed  —  SlETeiy  Af^tatan 
Korth  and  Sonth  EqiuUy  denooaodd 
•8  DftOgerou*  to  the  Union    .  .     154 

Bank  of  the  United  States— Bealgnation 
of  Mr.  Blddle--Flnal  Soapenaion      .         IST 

Flrrt  Seaslon  Twenty-aizth  Oongreaa 
Members-Organiiation— Political  Mttp 
oftheHooae 1B8 

Flnt  Seaalon  of  the  Twentj-aixth  Oon- 
greaa— PrealdenVa  Meaaage  IM 

DiToroe  of  Bank  and  State— Diyorea  d»- 
ereed 164 

Floild*  Armed  Ooenpatlon  BlU— Mr. 
Benton^B  Speech— Extncta  .         107 

Aaanmptlon  of  the  State  Bebta  .     ITl 

Aaramptton  of  the  State  Debta— Mr.  B«^ 
ton*8  Speech— Eztracta     ...         ITS 

Death  of  General  Samnel  Smith,  of  Marj* 
land ;  and  Notice  of  hla  Life  and  Ohai^ 
aeter 176 

Salt— the  Uniyenalitj  of  ita  Supply— 
Hyatery  and  Indiapenaftblllty  of  ita  Uae 
—Tyranny  and  Impiety  of  ita  Taxation 
— Speech  of  Mr.  Benton— Extraeta  .         176 

Pairingoif 178 

Tax  on  Bank  Notea— Mr.  Bonton'a  Speech 
—Extraeta 179 

liberation  of  Slavea  belonging  to  Ameri- 
can Citiiena  in  Britiah  Colonial  Porta  .     IBS 

Bealgnation  of  Senator  Hngh  Lftwaon 
White  of  Tenneeaee— Hla  Death— Some 
Notice  of  hie  life  and  Character      .         184 

Death  of  Ex-Senator  Hayne  of  Sonth  Oar- 
ollna^Notlce  of  hla  Life  and  Charaettr     186 

AboUtion  of  Speeiflc  Duties  by  the  Com^ 
promise  Act  of  1888— Ita  Error,  and 
Loaa  to  the  BeTcnne,  ahown  by  Bxpt- 
ilence 188 

Beflned  Sugar  and  Bum  Dmwbacki 
their  Abnae  under  the  Compromlaa 
Actofl888— Mr.Benton*a6peedi    .         190 

Flahlttg  Bountlea  and  AUowanoea,  and 
their  Abuse— Mr.  Benton'a  Speech— 
Extraeta 194 

ExpendltureaoftheGoTenment  196 

KTpfinsfis  of  the  Oorenmient,  Compaf*- 
tiye  and  Progreaalye,  and  Separated 
fkom  BxtraordJnartea     .      .       .       .     SNX) 

Death  of  Mr.  Justice  Barboor  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  Appointment  of  Pa- 
ter T.  Daniel,  Esq.,  in  his  plaoo  909 

Presidential  ElecUon        ....     906 

Conclusion  of  Mr.  Yan  Barents  Admlnia- 
tntion 907 

Inanguration  of  Prealdent  Harrison— His 
Cahlnet^^Oall  of  CongToas   and  Death      909 

Aooeaaion  of  the  Ylce-Preaident  to  tfaa 
Preaiden^ ,    »     VI 

Twenty-aeyenth  Oongreaa— Firat  Seaaloa 
— liat  of  Membeia,  and  dganlzatton  of 
the  House 918 

First  Message  of  Mr.  Tyler  to  Congraaii 
and  Mr.  Clay's  Programme  of  Bnsinsis     916 

Bepeal  of  the  Independent  Traaanry  Act      919 

Bepeal  of  the  Independent  Treasury  Aet 
—Mr.  Benton*a  Speech  ....     990 


LZYL   The  Bankrupt  Act— What  it  waa—and 

how  it  waa  Passed  ....         999 
LZTn.    Bankrupt  BiU— Mr.  Benton'a  Speech— 

Extraeta 994 

LXYUL    Distribution  of  the  Public  Land  Bere- 
nue,  and  Aasumptlon  of  the  State 

Debts 910 

LZIZ.    Institution  of  the  Hour  Bule  in  Debate 

in  the  Honae  of  BepresentatlTea— Ita 

Attempt,  and  Bepulse  in  the  Senate       917 

LZX.    Bill  for  the  Belief  of  Mrs.  Harriaon, 

Widow  of  the  late  President  of  the 

United  States 907 

LZZL    MxB.  Harrison's  BiU-«peech  of  Mr. 

Benton— Extracts   ....         909 
LYXTT.    Abuse  of  the  Naval  Pension  Systenn- 

Yain  attempt  to  Correct  it  .     96B 

LXXITT.    Home  Squadron,  and  Aid  to  Private 

Steam  linea 971 

LXXIY.    Becharter  of  the  DUtriet  Banka— Mr. 

Benton'a  Speech— Extraeta  90 

LXZY.  BcTolt  In  Oanada^Border  Sympathy— 
Firmneas  of  Mr.  Yan  Bnren— Public 
Peace  Endangered— and  Pteserred— 
CaaeofMcLeod  ....  978 
LZXYL  Deatrnetion  of  the  Caroline— Aneat  and 
Trial  of  McLeod  — Mr.  Benton'k 
Speech— Extracts  .  .  .  .  9B1 
LXXYIL    Beftiaal  of  the  House  to  allow  Beceaa 

Commltteea 804 

LZXYIIL    Bednction  of  the  Expense  of  Foreign 

Missions  by  reducing  the  Number    .     806 
T.TTTT.    Infringement  of  the  Tariff  Compromise 
Aet  of  1888— Correction  of  Abuses  In 

Drawbacks 807 

LXXZ.    National  Bank-Flzat  Bin     ...     817 
LXXZL    Second  Fiscal  Agent^Bill  Piesented- 
Pasaed— Diaapproved  by  the  Preal- 
dent   881 

T.TTTTT  Secret  History  of  the  Second  BID  ibr  a 
Fiscal  Agent,  called  Fiscal  Corpora- 
tion—Ita  Origin  with  Mr.  Tyler— Ita 
Progreas  through  Congress  under  his 
Lead— Ita  B^ectlon  under  his  Yeto  819 
T.YTTTTT    The  Ycto  Message  hissed  in  the  Senate 

GaUeries 800 

LXXZIY.    Bealgnation  ofMr.Tyler*B  Cabinet  .         888 
LXXZY.    Bepudiation  of  Mr.  Tyler  by  the  Whig 
Party  — their    Manifeato— Counter 
Manifeato  by  Mr.  Caleb  Cashing       .     887 
LXZXYL    The  Daniah  Sound  Duea    ...         809 
LXXXYIL    Laat  Notice  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 

SUtea .     886 

LXXXVili.    End  and  Besnlts  of  the  Extra  Seaalon        8T9 
T.TTTTT.    First  Annual  Meaaage  of  Prealdent  Tyler     878 
Xa    Third  Plan  for  a  Fiscal  Agent,  called 
Exchequer    Board  —  Mr.    Benton^ 
Speech  against  it— Extracts  .  876 

XCL    The  Third   Fiscal  Agent,  entiUed  a 

Board  of  Exchequer  .       .     804 

XCIL    Attempted  Bepeal  of  the  Bankrupt  Aet     886 
XCUL    Death  of  Lewis  WtUlams,  of  North 
Carolina,  and  Notice  of  his  life  and 

Character 896 

XCIY.  The  aril  liat  Expenses— the  Contin- 
gent Expenses  of  Congress  and  the 
Bevenue  Collection  Expense  •     897 


OOliTENlB  OF  VOL.  IL 


XOV. 
XOVL 

zcrnL 


ZXTTOL 
XODL 

a 

OL 

on. 
om. 

GEY. 
OVL 

ovn. 
0¥in. 

dX. 

ox 

OXL 

oxn. 

GOV. 
OXV. 

OXVI. 
(Scyn. 

asvnL 

GXIX. 

cxx. 

OXXL 

oxxn. 

flXXTTT. 


TAOm 

BMi«iMtloiiandTaledlatoi7  0fHr.Cla7    .     808 

Mllituy  Department— Program  of  its  Xz- 
pwM 4M 

Paper  Honej  Fajments— Attempted  bj 
the  Federal  OoTermnent— Bealeted-Mr. 
Beaton^s  Speech 406 

Case  of  the  Amerioan  Brig  Creole  with 
Blavea  for  New  Orieana,  carried  bj  Mu- 
tiny Into  Naaaao,  and  the  Slayee  LIh- 
enited 400 

Dlatreae  of  the  Treacaij—ThreeTwiff  Blllib 
and  Two  Yetoea— End  of  the  Compro- 
mlaeAct 418 

Mr.  Tyler  and  the  Whig  Party— Conflimed 
Beparation 417 

Irf>rd  Aahburton's  HIaBlon,  and  the  BriUah 
Treaty 480 

British  Treaty— The  Pretermitted  Sab- 
Jeets— Mr.  Benton*s  Speech— Kxtraets  486 

British  Treaty— Northeastern  Boundary  , 
Artlde  — Mr.    Benton's    Speech  — Ex- 
tracts    488 

British  Treaty— Northwestern  Boondaiy— 
Mr.  Benton's  Speech— Extracts   .  4il 

British  Treaty— Extradition  Article— Mr. 
Benton's  Speech— Extract        ...     444 

British  Treaty— African  Squadron  for  the 
Soppresslon  of  the  Slaye  Trade— Mr. 
Benton's  Speech— Extract    ...         440 

Expense  of  the  Navy— Waste  of  Money- 
Necessity  of  a  Naral  Peace  EstabUsh- 
inent,andofaNaTalPoll^     ...     408 

Expenses  of  the  Navy— Mr.  Benton's  Speech 
— Extracta 406 

Message  of  the  Prssident  at  tha  Opening 
oftheBegolar  Session  of  1848-'8      .       .     460 

Bepeal  of  the  Bankmpt  Act— Mr.  Benton's 
Speech— Extracts 468 

Military  Academy  and  Army  Expenaes  466 

Emigration  to  the  Colombia  Blver,  and 
Foundation  of  its  Settlement  by  Ameri- 
can Citizens— Fr^ont's  First  Expedi- 
tion   468 

Lieutenant  Fremont's  First  Expedition- 
Speech,  and  Motion  of  Senator  linn  478 

Oregon  Colonization  Act — Mr.  Benton's 
Speech 470 

Navy  Pay  and  Expenses— Proposed  Bedao- 
tlon— Speech  of  Mr.  Meriwether,  of  Qeor^ 
gia— Extracts 483 

Eulogy  on  Senator  linn— Speeches  of  Mr. 
Benton  and  Mr.  Crittenden  .       .       .      «  480 

The  Coest  Survey- Attempt  to  diminish 
its  Expense,  and  to  expedite  Its  Comple- 
tion by  restoring  the  Work  to  Naval  and 
Military  Oflicers 487 

Death  of  Commodore  Porter,  and  Notice  of 
his  Life  and  Character .       ...  401 

BeftmdingofOeneralJackson'sFlne  .  '  400 

Bepeal  of  the  Bankrupt  Act— Attack  of 
Mr.  Cashing  on  Mr.  Clay— Its  Bebnke  008 

Naval  Expenditures  and  Administration- 
Attempts  at  Reform— Abortive    .  007 

Chinese  Mission— Mr.  Cushing's  Appoint- 
ment and  Negotiation       ....     610 

The  Alleged  Mutiny,  and  the  Executloas 
(as  they  were  called)  on  Board  the  United 
States  man-of-war,  Bomers    ...         I 


OXXIY.    Betlrement  of  Mr.  Webster  from  Mr. 

Tyler's  Cabinet 

OXXY.    Death  of  WllUamH.Crawfoid.       . 

OXXYL    Fbtt  Session  of  the  Twenty-eighth 

Congress    list  of  Membera-Organl- 

istlon  of  the  Hoose  of  Representativea 

OXXYU.    Mr.  Tyler's  Second  Annual  Message 

OXXYIIL   Explosion  of  the  Great  Oun  on  Board 

the  Prineeton  maa-of wai^-the  Killed 

and  Wounded 

OXXIX    Beconstroetlon  of  Mr.  Tyler's  Cabinet . 
OXXX.    DeathofSenatorPorter,  of  Louisiana— 

Suloglum  of  Mr.  Benton 
OXXXL   Naval  Academy,  and  Naval  Poll<7  of 
the  United  States        .... 
GXXXn.    The  Home  Squadron— Its  Inutility  and 

Xxpense 

OXXXm    Professor  Mone— His  Eleetro-Msgnetlo 

Telegraph 

OXXXrV.    Frteiont's  Second  Expedition 
OXXXY.    TexssAnnexation— Secret  Origin— Bold 

Intrigue  for  the  Presidsncy     . 
CXXXYL   Demoerstic  Conventioai  for  the  Nomi- 
nation of  Praeldential  Candidates 
OXXXYIL    Presidential— Democratic  National  Con- 
vention—Mr.  Calhoun's  Seftisal  t« 
Submit  his  Name  to  it— His  Seasons 
OXXXYin.    Annexation  of  Texas— Secret  Negotia- 
tion—Presidential Intrigue— Schemes 
of  Speculation  and  Disunion  . 
fiTTTTT    Texas  Annexation  Treaty— First  Speech 
of  Mr.  Benton  against  it— Extracts    . 
OXL.    Texas  or  Disunion— Southern  Conven- 
tion—Mr. Benton's  Speech— Extrscts 
OXLL    Texaa  or  Disunion— Ylolent  Demon- 
strations in  the  South— Southern  Con- 
vention proposed     .... 
OXLEL    Bisection  of  the  Annexation  Treaty- 
Proposal  of  Mr.  Benton's  Pkn    . 
OXLIU.    Oregon  Territory— Conventions  of  1818 
and  1888— Joint  Occupation— At- 
^  tempted  Notice  to  Terminate  it    . 
CXLIY.    Presidential  Election      .... 
CXLY.    Amendment  of  the  Constitution— Eleo- 
tion  of  President  snd  Yioe-Pxesident 
—Mr.  Benton's  Plan 
OXLYL    The  President  and  the  Senate— Want 
of  Concord— Numerous  B^eotlons  of 

Nominations 

OXLYIL    Mr.  Tyler's  I^wt  Message  to  Congress 
CXLYIIL    Legislative  Admission  of  Texas  into  the 
Union  as  a  Stato      .... 
CXLIX.    The  War  with  Mexico— Its  Cause- 
Charged  on  the  Conduct  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn—Mr.  Benton's  Speech 
CL.   Mr.  Polk's  Inangnnl  Address    Cabinet 
CLL    Mr.  Bhdr  and  the  Globe  superseded  as 
the  Administration  OrgaBH-Mr.  T.  Bit- 
chie  and  the  Dally  Union  snbstitated 
CLIL    Twenty-ninth  Congress— list  of  Mem- 
bei»-Flr8t  Session— Orgsnisatlon  of 

the  House 

OUIL    Mr.  Polk's  First  Annual  Messsge  to 

Congress 

CLIY.    Death  of  John  Forsyth 
CLY.    Admission  of  Florida  and  Iowa     . 
OLYL    Oregon    Treaty  —  Negotiations    mm- 
and  broken  oir  . 


668 
660 


667 
660 


675 

ore 

679 
681 
601 


000 
600 

618 

616 

ao 


681 


600 


607 
600 


COKTEKTO  OP  VOL  IL 


GLYIL  Oregon  Qneitloii— Notice  to  abrogate  fhe 
Article  in  the  Treaty  for  a  Joint  Occa- 
pation— The  President  denonnced  in 
the  Senate  for  a  sappoeed  Leaning  to 
the  Une  of  Forty-nine    .... 

Oregon  Territorial  Ooyeniment— Boon- 
dazies  and  Histoiy  of  the  Country— 
Fraaer'B  Rivei^Treaty  of  Utrecht— Mr. 
Benton'B  Speech— Eztraeta 

Oregon  Joint  Ooonpatlon— Notice  aoihor- 
ixed  for  terminating  it— Britbh  OoTen- 
ment  olTori  the  Line  of  49— Qnandaiy  of 
the  Administration— DoTtee — Senate 
Oonsnltedr-Treaty  made  and  Batlfled 

Meeting  of  the  Second  Seadon  of  the  80th 
Oongie8»~Preflidettra  Meewge  Vigo- 
rona  Prosecntion  of  the  War  Beoom- 
mended— Lientenant-general  propoaed 
to  be  created 

War  with  Mexico— The  War  Declared, 
and  an  Intrigae  for  Peace  commenced 
theaameDay 

Bloodleaa  Conqneatof  New  Mexico— How 
it  waa  Done— Snbeeqnent  Bloody  In- 
aarrection,  and  its  Canae    . 

Mexican  Wai^Doniphan*8  Expedition- 
Mr.  Benton'a  Salutatory  Addiev,  St 
Louis,  Missouri 

Fr4mont*8  Third  Expedition,  and  Acqni- 
sltionofGaUfomia      .... 

Pause  in  the  Wai^-Sedentary  Tacttea— 
"Masterly  Inactivity**       .       .       . 

The  WUmot  Proyiso-Or,  Prohibition  of 
Slavery  in  the  Territories— Its  Inutility 
and  Mischief 

Mr.  Oalhoun*a  Slavery  Rea<dutiona,  and 
Denial  of  the  Bight  of  Oongreia  to  Pro- 
hibit SUvery  in  a  Territory 
OLXYin.  The  Slavery  Agitation— Disunion— Key 
to  Mr.  Galhoun*s  Policy— Forcing  the 
Issue— Mode  of  Forcing  it 

Death  of  Sllaa  Wright,  Ex-Senator  and 
Ex-Goyemor  of  New  York 
CXiXX    Thirtieth  Congreaa-Flnt  Session— List  of 
Members— President's  Message     . 

Death  of  Senator  Barrow— Mr.  Benton'a 
Enlogium 

Death  of  Mr.  Adams 

DownJhll  of  Santa  Anna— New  Ooyem- 
ment  in  Mexico— Peace  Negotiations- 
Treaty  of  Peace  

Oregon  Territorial  Ooyemment— Anti- 
Bl^yery  Ordinance  of  1787  applied  to 
Oregon  Territory— Mlaaonri  Compro- 
mise Line  of  18M,  and  the  Texas  An- 
nexation Benewal  of  it  In  1846,  affirmed 
CLXXV.  Mr.  Calhoun*a  New  Dogma  on  Territorial 
SlaycTy— Self-extension  of  the  Slavery 
Part  of  the  Constitution  to  Territoriea 
CliXXTL    Oourl-martial  of  Lieutenant-colonel  Fr6- 

mont 

OLZXYIL  Fr^onfs  Fourth  Expedition,  and  Great 
Disaster  in  the  Snowa  at  tho  Head  of 
the  Bio  Grande  del  Norte— Snbeequent 
~-  ''^hePaashesoQght    . 


GLYm. 


CUX 


GLX. 


CLXL 


CLXII. 


GLzm. 


OLXIV. 


OLXV. 


OLXVL 


CLXYIL 


GLXDL 


CLXXL 


CLXXIL 
CT.XXTIL 


GLXXIY. 


MS 


M7 


m 


m 


e79 


684 


<88 


MS 


700 


70S 


700 
707 


TOO 


m 


ns 


710 


710 


CLxxynL 

GLXXIX 
CLXXX. 

flT.TTTT 


GLXZZIL 


GTiXXXnt 


OLXXXIY. 

GLZZZY. 
CLXXXYL 


OLXXXYIL 

OLXiXVllL 
OLXXXIX. 


OXG 
OXCL 

oxen. 

CXCIIL 
CXCIY. 

CXCY. 

CXCVL 

CXCYIL 
GXOYin. 

GXOEC. 

oa 


TAom 

Presidential  BleeUon      ...         78S 

Last  Measage  of  Mr.  Polk    .       .       .     7S4 

Financial  Working  of  the  Government 
under  the  Hard  Money  System  TSO 

Coast  Survey— Belongs  to  the  Navy- 
Converted  Into  a  Separate  Depart- 
ment—Expense and  Interminabili- 
ty— Should  be  done  by  the  Navy, 
aa  in  Great  Britain— Mr.  Benton's 
Speech— Extract  ....         730 

Proposed  Extension  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  to  the  Tex^ 
ritories,  with  a  Yiew  to  make  it  car- 
ry Slavery  into  California,  Utah  and 
New  Mexico 7S0 

Progress  of  the  Slaveiy  Agitation- 
Meeting  of  Members  from  the  Slare 
States- Influnmatory  Addreas  to 
the  Southern  States     ...         788 

Inauguration  of  President  Taylor— 
His  Cabinet 7S7 

Death  of  Ex-Presldent  Polk   .  787 

Thirty-first  Congress— Fint  Session- 
List  of  Members— Organization  of 
the  House 788 

First  and  only  Annual  Measage  of 
President  Taylor  ....         740 

Mr.  Clay  *a  Plan  of  Compromise  .       .     748 

Extension  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise line  to  the  Pacific  Ocean- 
Mr.  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  and  Me. 
Clay— The  Wilmot  Proviso        .         MB 

Mr.  Calhoun'a  Last  Speech— Divoln- 
tion  of  the  Union  proclaimed  un- 
leea  the  Constitution  was  amended, 
and  »  Dual  Executive  appointed- 
one  President  from  the  Slave  States 
and  one  from  the  Free  Statea        .     744 

Death  of  Mr.  Calhoun- His  Euloginm 
by  Senator  Bntier        ...         747 

Mr.  Clay'a  Plan  of  Slavery  Compro- 
mise—Mr. Benton's  Speech  Against 
ilH-Extraota 740 

Death  of  President  Taylor  766 

Inauguration  and  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Fill- 
more   .707 

B^ection  of  Mr.  Clay'a  Plan  of  Com- 
promise   768 

The  Admission  of  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia—Protest of  Southern  Sena- 
tors—Bemarks  upon  it  by  Mr.  Ben- 
ton      760 

Fugitive  Slaves;  Ordinance  of  1787— 
The  Constitution— Act  of  1798— Act 
oflSOO 778 

Disunion  Movements— Southern  Preea 
at  Washington— Southern  Conven- 
tion at  Nashville— Southern  Con- 
gress called  for  by  South  Carolina 
and  Mississippi 780 

The  Supreme  Court  — Its  Judges, 
Clerk,  Attorney-Generals,  Report- 
ers and  Marshals  during  the  Period 
treated  of  in  this  Yolume    .       .         787 

Condnsion 767 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  MARTIN  VAN  BUREK 


CHAPTEE  I. 

QTAtJGURATION  OF  MB.  YAN  BUBEN. 

March  the  4th  of  this  year,  Mr.  Van  Btiren 
was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States 
with  the  usual  fonooalities,  and  conformed  to  the 
usage  of  his  predecessors  in  delivering  a  public 
address  on  the  occasion :  a  declaration  of  gen- 
eral prindples,  and  an  indication  of  the  general 
course  of  the  administration,  were  the  tenor  of 
his  discourse:  and  the  doctrines  of  the  demo- 
cratic school,  as  understood  at  the  original  for- 
mation of  parties,  were  those  professed.  Close 
ohseryance  of  the  federal  constitution  as  written 
— ^no  latitudinarian  constructions  permitted,  or 
doubtful  powers  assumed—fiuthful  adherence  to 
all  its  compromises — economy  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  government — ^peaoe,  friendsbip 
and  fair  dealing  with  all  foreign  nations — en- 
tangling alliances  with  none:  such  was  his 
political  chart:  and  with  the  expression  of  his 
belief  that  a  perseverance  in  this  line  of  foreign 
policy,  with  an  increased  strength,  tried  valor 
of  the  people,  and  ezhaustless  resources  of  the 
country,  would  entitle  us  to  the  good  inll  of 
nations,  protect  our  national  respectability,  and 
secure  us  from  designed  aggression  from  foreign 
powers.  His  expressions  and  views  on  this  head 
deserve  to  be  commemorated,  and  to  be  con- 
sidered by  all  those  into  whose  hands  the  man- 
agement of  the  public  affairs  may  go ;  and  are, 
therefore,  here  given  in  his  own  words : 

^  Our  course  of  foreign  policy  has  been  so  uni- 
form and  intelligible,  as  to  constitute  a  rule  of 


executive  conduct  which  leaves  little  to  my  dis- 
cretion, unless  indeed,  I  were  willing  to  run  coun- 
ter to  the  lights  of  experience,  and  the  known 
opinions  of  my  constituents.  We  sedulously 
cultivate  the  friendship  of  all  nations,  as  the  con- 
dition most  compatible  with  our  wel&re,  and 
the  principles  of  our  government  We  decline 
alliances,  as  adverse  to  our  peace.  We  desire 
commercial  relations  on  equal  terms,  being  ever 
willing  to  gve  a  fair  equivalent  for  advantages 
received.  We  endeavor  to  conduct  our  inter- 
course with  openness  and  sincerity;  promptiv 
avowing  our  objects,  and  seeking  to  establish 
that  mutual  frankness  which  is  as  beneficial  in 
the  dealings  of  nations  as  of  men.  We  have  no 
disposition,  and  we  disclaim  all  right,  to  meddle 
in  disputes,  whether  internal  or  foreign,  that 
may  molest  other  countries ;  regarding  them,  in 
l^eir  actual  state^  as  social  communities,  and  pre- 
serving a  strict  neutrality  in  all  their  contro- 
versies. Well  knowing  tiie  tried  valor  of  our 
people,  and  our  exhaustiess  resources,  we 
neither  anticipate  nor  fear  any  designed  aggres- 
sion ;  and,  in  the  consciousness  of  our  own  just 
conduct,  we  feel  a  security  that  we  shall  never 
be  called  upon  to  exert  our  determination,  never 
to  permit  an  invasion  of  our  rights,  without 
punishment  or  redress." 

These  are  sound  and  encoun^;ing  viewsj 
and  in  adherence  to  them,  promise  to  the  United 
States  a  career  of  peace  and  prosperity  compar- 
atively free  fix>m  the  succession  of  wars  which 
have  loaded  so  many  nations  with  debt  and 
taxes,  filled  them  with  so  many  pensioners  and 
paupers,  created  so  much  necessity  for  perma- 
nent fleets  and  armies ;  and  placed  one  half  the 
population  in  the  predicament  of  living  upon  the 
hibor  of  the  other.  The  stand  which  the  United 
States  had  acquired  among  nations  by  the  vindi- 
cation of  her  rights  against  the  greatet^  ^^^>^>^^ 


'^ff 


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illlili  i    \  i.'  .'.   ■    ■■ 


FUO:-:    1.V2"   TU    i>>>0. 


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12 


THIBTY  YEABS'  VIEW. 


stnyen  to  acoomplUh — to  widen  the  fnetAllic 
basis  of  the  carrencj  by  a  greater  infusion  of 
coin  into  the  smaller  channels  of  circulation. 
This  was  in  a  g;radual  and  judicious  train  of  ac- 
complishment. But  this  miserable  foolery  about 
an  ezdusively  metallic  currency,  is  quite  as 
absurd  as  to  discard  the  steamboats,  and  go 
back  to  poling  up  the  Mississippi" 

The  lead  thus  given  out  was  sedulously  fol- 
lowed during  the  winter,  both  in  Congress  and 
out  of  it)  and  at  the  end  of  the  session  had 
reached  an  immense  demonstration  in  New 
York,  in  the  preparations  made  to  receiye  Mr. 
Webster,  and  to  hear  a  speech  fh>m  him,  on  his 
return  f^om  Washii^ton.  He  arrived  in  New 
Tork  on  the  15th  of  March,  and  the  papers  of 
the  dty  give  this  glowing  account  of  his  recep- 
tion: 

"In  conformity  ^ith  public  announcement, 
7e6terdAy,atabout  half  past  3  o'clock,  the  Honor- 
able Dai; lEL  Webster  arrived  in  this  dty  in  the 
steamboat  Swan  from  Philadelphia.  The  intense 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  to  give  a  grate- 
ful reception  to  this  great  advocate  of  the  consti- 
tution, set  the  whole  dty  in  motion  towai^ds  the 
point  of  debarkation,  for  nearly  an  hour  before 
the  arrival  of  the  distinguished  visitor.  At  the 
moment  when  the  steamboat  reached  the  pier, 
the  assemblage  had  attained  that  degree  of 
density  and  azudety  to  witness  the  landing,  that 
it  was  feared  serious  consequences  would  result 
At  half  past  3  o'clock  Mr.  Webster:  accompanied 
by  Philip  Hone  and  David  B.  Ogden,  landed 
from  the  boat  amidst  the  deafening  cheers  and 
plaudits  of  the  multitude,  thrice  repeated,  and 
took  his  seat  in  an  open  barouche  provided  for 
the  occasion.  The  prooe^on,  consistmg  of 
several  hundred  dtizens  upon  horseback,  a  large 
train  of  carriages  and  dtizens,  formed  upon  State 
street,  and  a^r  receiving  their  distinguished 
guest^  proceeded  with  great  order  up  Broadway 
to  the  i^rtments  arranged  for  his  reception  at 
the  American  HoteL  The  scene  presented  the 
most  gratifying  spectade.  Hundreds  of  dtizens 
who  had  been  opposed  to  Mr.  Webster  in  poli- 
tics, now  that  he  appeared  as  a  private  individ- 
ual, came  forth  to  demonstrate  tneir  respect  for 
his  private  worth  and  to  express  their  approba- 
tion of  his  personal  character;  and  thousands 
more  who  appreciated  his  prindples  and  political 
integrity,  crowded  aroimd  to  convince  him  of 
their  personal  attachment,  and  g^ve  evidence  <^ 
their  approval  of  his  public  acts.  The  wharves, 
the  shipping,  the  housetops  and  windows,  ana 
the  streets  £it>u^h  which  the  procession  passed, 
were  thronged  vnth  citizens  of  eveiy  occupation 
and  degree,  and  loud  and  continued  cheers 
greeted  the  great  statesman  at  every  point 
There  was  not  a  greater  number  at  the  recep- 
tion of  General  Jackson  in  this  dty,  with  the 
exception  of  the  military,  nor  a  gr^uter  degree 


of  enthusiasm  manifested  upon  that  occasion, 
than  the  arrival  upon  our  shores  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster. At  6  o'dodc  in  the  evening,  the  anxious 
multitude  b^gan  to  move  towards  Niblo's  saloon, 
where  Mr.  Webster  was  to  be  addressed  by  the 
committee  of  dtizens  delegated  for  that  purpose^ 
and  to  which  it  was  expected  he  would  reply. 
A  large  body  of  officers  were  upon  the  ground 
to  keep  the  assemblage  within  bounds,  and  at  a 
quarter  past  six  the  doors  were  opened,  whsn 
tiie  saloon,  garden,  and  avenues  leading  uiereto 
were  instantly  crowded  to  overflowing. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Alderman 
Clark,  who  proposed  for  president,  David  B. 
Ogden,  which  upon  being  put  to  vote  was  unani- 
mously adopted.  The  following  gentlemen  were 
then  elected  vice-presidents,  viz :  Robert  G.  Cor- 
nell, Jonathan  Goodhue,  Joseph  Tucker,  Na- 
thaniel Weed;  and  Joseph  Hoxie  and  G.  S. 
Robins^secretaries. 

Mr.  W.  began  his  remarks  at  a  quarter  before 
seven  o'dock,  p.  m.  and  conduded  them  at  a 
quarter  past  nme.  When  he  entered  the  saloon, 
he  was  received  with  the  most  deafening  cheers. 
The  hall  rang  vrith  t^e  loud  plaudits  of  the 
crowd,  and  every  hat  was  waving.  So  great 
was  the  crowd  in  the  galleries,  and  such  was  the 
apprehension  that  the  apparently  weak  wooden 
columns  which  supported  would  give  way,  that 
Mr.  W.  was  twice  interrupted  with  the  appalling 
cry  ^the  galUrUa  are  fallmg^^  when  only  a 
window  was  broken,  or  a  stove-pipe  shaken. 
The  length  of  the  address  (two  and  a  half  hours), 
none  too  long,  however,  for  the  audience  would 
with  pleasure  have  tarried  two  hours  longer, 
compels  us  to  give  at  present  only  the  heads  of 
a  speech  which  we  would  otherwise  now  report 
in  detail." 

Certainly  Mr.  Webster  was  worthy  of  all 
honors  in  ihd  great  city  of  New  York ;  but  hav- 
ing been  accustomed  to  pass  through  that  dty 
several  times  in  every  year  during  the  preceding 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  to  make  frequent  so- 
journs there,  and  to  speak  thereafter,  and  in  all 
Ibe  characters  of  politician,  social  guest,  and 
member  of  the  bar, — ^it  is  certam  that  neither  his 
person  nor  his  speaking  could  be  such  a  novdty 
and  rarity  as  to  call  out  upon  his  arrival  so  large 
a  meeting  as  is  here  described,  invest  it  with  so 
much  form,  fire  it  with  so  much  enthusiasm, 
fill  it  with  so  much  expectation,  unless  there 
had  been  some  large  object  in  view — some  great 
effect  to  be  produced — some  consequence  to  re- 
sult: and  of  all  which  this  imposing  demonstra- 
tion was  at  once  the  sign  and  the  initiative.  No 
holiday  occasion,  no  complimentary  notice,  no 
feeling  of  personal  regard,  could  have  called 
forth  an  assemblage  so  vast,  and  inspired  it  with 
such  deep  and  anxious  emotions.    It  required  a 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  TAN  BUBBN,  PBEBIDENT. 


13 


pdklic  oljMt,  %  general  interest,  %  pervading 
oonoem,  and  a  ■erioua  apprehenaion  of  some  un- 
certain and  fearftil  future,  to  call  out  and  oi^ganize 
such  a  masB— not  of  the  yoong^  the  ardent,  the 
heedless— 4Hit  of  the  age,  the  character,  the 
talent,  the  fhrtime^  the  grsntj  of  the  most 
populons  and  opulent  city  of  the  Union.  It  was 
as  if  the  popolation  of  a  great  city,  in  terror  of 
some  great  impendii^  nnknown  calamity,  had 
come  forth  to  get  consoUtion  and  counsel  ttcm 
a  wise  man— to  ask  him  what  was  to  happen  1 
and  what  they  were  to  do?  And  so  in  ftct  it 
was,  as  folly  disdoeed  in  the  address  with  which 
the  orator  was  saluted,  and  in  the  speech  of  two 
hours  and  a  half  which  he  made  in  response  to 
it.  The  address  was  a  deprecation  of  calamities; 
the  speech  was  responsive  to  the  address^^ad- 
nutted  eyeiy  thing  that  could  he  feared— and 
charged  the  whole  upon  the  mal-administration 
of  the  federal  government  A  picture  of  uni- 
yersal  distress  vfss  portrayed,  and  worse  com- 
ing ;  and  the  remedy  for  the  whole  the  same 
which  had  been  presented  in  Mr.  Biddle's  letter 
— the  recharter  of  tA«  national  hank.  The  speech 
was  a  manifesto  against  the  Jackson  administm- 
lion,  and  a  protest  against  its  continuation  in 
the  person  of  his  successor,  and  an  invocation  to 
a  general  oombinatioQ  against  it  All  the  banks 
were  sought  to  be  united,  and  made  to  stand 
together  upon  a  sense  of  common  danger — 
the  administration  their  enemy,  the  national 
hank  their  protectknL  Every  industrial  pursuit 
was  pictured  as  crippled  and  damaged  by  bad 
government  Material  injury  to  private  interests 
were  still  more  vehemently  charged  than  polit- 
ical injuries  to  the  body  politic  In  the  deplor- 
able pcture  which  it  presented  of  the  condition 
of  eveiy  industrial  pursuit,  and  especially  in  the 
"war"  upon  the  banks  and  the  currency,  it 
seemed  to  be  a  justificatory  pleading  in  advance 
for  s  general  shutting  up  of  their  doors,  and  the 
shutting  up  of  the  federal  treasury  at  the  same 
time.  In  this  sense^  and  on  this  point,  the 
speech  contained  this  ominous  sentence,  more 
candid  than  discreet,  taken  in  connection  with 
what  was  to  happen: 

^  Sememher,  gmtUmen^  in  the  midst  of  this 
dsafening  din  again$t  dU  banit^  that  if  it  didll 
&r$ate  aueh  apanie,  or  aueh  alarms  a»  tihaU  thut 
vp  the  J)ank$^  it  will  $hut  up  the  treoiurff  of  the 
United  States  dUo.^  • 

The  whole  tenor  of  the  speech  was  calculated 
to  produce  discontent,  create  distress,  and  ezdte 


alarm — discontent  and  distress  for  present  su^ 
ferings— alarm  for  the  greater,  whidi  were  to 
come.    This  is  a  sample: 

"  Gentlemen,  I  would  not  willingly  be  a  pro- 
phet of  ill.  I  most  devoutly  wish  to  see  a  better 
state  of  things ;  and  I  bebeve  the  repeal  of  the 
treasury  order  would  tend  yery  much  to  bring 
about  tnat  better  state  of  things.  And  I  am  of 
opinion,  eentlemen,  that  the  order  will  be  re- 
pealed. I  think  it  must  be  repealed.  I  think 
the  east,  west,  north  and  south,  will  demand  its 
repeiJ.  But,  gentlemen,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  say, 
that  if  I  shoud  be  disappointed  in  this  expecta- 
tion, I  see  no  immediate  relief  to  the  distresses 
of  the  community.  I  greatly  fear,  even,  that 
the  worst  is  not  yet  I  look  for  severer  dis- 
tresses ;  for  extreme  difBculties  in  exchange ;  for 
&r  greater  inconveniences  in  remittance^  and  for 
a  sudden  fell  in  prices.  Our  condition  is  one  not 
to  be  tampered  with,  and  the  repeal  of  the  treas- 
ury order  being  something  which  goyemment 
can  do,  and  whish  will  do  good,  the  public  yoioe 
is  right  in  demanding  that  repeaL  It  is  true,  if 
repealed  now,  the  relief  will  come  late.  Never- 
theless its  repeal  or  abrogation  is  a  thing  to  be 
insisted  on,  and  pursued  till  it  shall  be  accom- 
plished." 

The  speech  concluded  with  an  earnest  ex- 
hortation to  the  citizens  of  New  York  to  do 
something,  without  saying  what,  but  which  with 
my  misgivings  and  presentiments,  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  speech  and  the  circumstances  which 
attended  it— deliyered  in  the  moneyed  metropolis 
of  the  Union,  at  a  time  when  .there  was  no 
political  canvass  depending^  and  the  ominous 
omission  to  name  what  was  required  to  be  done 
— appeared  to  me  to  be  an  invitation  to  the 
New  Yoric  banks  to  dose  their  doors !  which 
being  done  by  them  would  be  an  example  fol- 
lowed throughout  the  Union,  and  produce  the 
consummation  of  a  uniyersal  suspension.  The 
follovring  is  that  condusion : 

"  Whigs  of  New  York  1  Patriotic  dtiaens  of 
this  great  metropolis ! — ^Lovers  of  constitutional 
liberty,  bound  by  interest  and  aiTection  to  the 
institutions  of  your  country,  Americans  in  heart 
and  in  principle !  You  are  ready,  I  am  sure,  to 
fulfil  all  the  duties  imposed  upon  you  by  your 
situation,  and  demanded  of  you  by  your  coun- 
try. You  have  a  central  position ;  your  dty  is 
the  point  fix)m  which  intelligence  emanates,  and 
spreads  in  all  directions  over  the  whole  land. 
Every  hour  carries  reports  of  your  sentiments 
and  opinions  to  the  verge  of  the  Union.  You 
cannot  escape  the  responsibility  which  drcum- 
stanoes  haye  thrown  upon  you.  You  must  live 
and  act  on  a  broad  and  conspicuous  theatre, 
either  for  good  or  fer  evil,  to  your  countiy.  You 
cannot  shnnk  away  tram  pubtic  duties;  you 


14 


THIBT7  YEARS'  VIEW. 


OMmot  obscnm  yooraelTefl,  nor  bury  your  talent 
In  the  common  welfare,  in  the  common  proa* 
perity,  in  the  common  glory  of  Americans,  you 
haTe  a  stake,  of  yalne  not  to  be  calculated,  lou 
hare  an  interest  in  the  preserration  of  the  Union, 
of  the  constitution,  and  of  the  true  prindples  of 
the  goTemment,  which  no  man  can  estimate. 
You  act  for  yourselyes,  and  for  the  generations 
that  are  to  come  after  you ;  and  those  who,  ages 
hence,  shall  bear  your  names,  and  partake  your 
blood,  will  feel  in  their  political  and  social  con- 
dition, tiie  consequences  of  the  manner  in  which 
you  discharge  your  political  duties.'' 

The  appeal  for  action  in  this  paragraph  is 
tehement.  It  takes  eveiy  form  of  riolent  desire 
which  is  known  to  the  art  of  entreaty.  Suppli- 
cation, solicitation,  remonstrance,  importunity, 
prayer,  menace !  until  risfaig  to  the  dignity  of  a 
debt  due  from  a  moneyed  metropolis  to  an  ex- 
pectant community,  he  demanded  payment  as 
matter  of  right !  and  enforced  the  demand  as  an 
obligation  of  necessity,  as  well  as  of  duty,  and 
from  which  such  a  community  could  not  escape, 
if  it  would.  The  nature  ofthe  action  which  was 
SQ  vehemently  desired,  could  not  be  mistaken. 
I  hold  it  a  fair  interpretation  of  this  appeal  that 
it  was  an  exhortation  to  the  bunness  population 
of  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  Union  to 
take  the  initiative  in  suspending  specie  payments, 
and  a  justiflcatoiy  manifesto  for  doing  so ;  and 
that  the  speech  itself  was  the  first  step  in  the 
grand  performance :  and  so  it  seemed  to  be  un- 
derstood. It  was  received  with  unbounded  ap- 
plause, lauded  to  the  skies,  cheered  to  the  echo, 
carefully  and  elaborately  prepared  for  publica- 
tion,— ^published  and  republished  in  newspaper 
and  pamphlet  form ;  and  universally  circulated. 
This  was  in  the  first  month  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
presidency,  and  it  will  be  seen  what  the  second 
ono  brought  forth. 

The  specie  drcnlar— that  treasury  order  of 
President  Jackson,  which  saved  the  public  lands 
ttom  being  converted  into  broken  bank  paper — 
■was  the  subject  of  repeated  denunciatoiy  refer- 
ence— ^very  erroneous,  as  the  event  has  proved. 
In  its  estimate  of  the  measure  |  but  quite  cor- 
rect in  its  histoiy,  and  amusmg  in  its  reference 
to  some  of  the  friends  of  the  administration  who 
undertook  to  act  a  part  for  and  against  the  ro- 
sdsffion  of  the  order  at  the  same  time. 

''Mr.  Websterthen  came  to  the  treasury  cir- 
cular, and  related  the  histoiy  of  the  late  legisl»- 
tion  upon  it  '  A  member  of  Congress,'  sud 
he,  'prepared  this  very  treasury  order  in  1836, 
but  tne  only  vote  he  got  for  it  was  his  own— he 


stood  'solitary'  and  'alone'  (a  laugh);  and 
yet  eleven  days  after  Congress  had  adjourned — 
only  six  months  after  the  President  in  his 
annual  message  had  congratulated  the  people 
upon  the  prosperous  sales  of  the  public  lands, — 
this  order  came  out  in  known  and  direct  opposi- 
tion to  the  wishes  of  nine-tenths  ofthe  members 
of  Congress.'" 

This  is  good  history  fh>m  a  dose  witness  of 
what  he  relates.  The  member  referred  to  as 
having  prepared  the  treasury  order,  and  offered 
it  in  the  shape  of  a  bill  m  the  Senate,  and  get- 
ting no  vote  for  it  but  his  own, — ^who  stood  soli- 
tary and  alone  on  that  occasion,  as  well  as  on 
some  others— was  no  other  than  the  writer  of 
this  View;  and  he  has  lived  to  see  about  as 
much  unanimity  in  fevor  of  that  measure  since 
as  there  was  against  it  then.  Nine-tenths  of  the 
members  of  Congress  were  then  against  it,  but 
from  very  difierent  motives — ^some  because  they 
were  deeply  engaged  in  land  speculations,  aiui 
borrowed  paper  fi^m  the  banks  for  the  purpose ; 
some  because  they  were  in  the  interest  oi  the 
banks,  and  wished  to  give  their  paper  credit  and 
circulation;  others  because  they  were  sincere 
believers  in  the  paper  system ;  others  because 
they  were  opposed  to  the  President^  and  be- 
lieved him  to  be  in  favor  of  the  measure ;  others 
again  from  mere  timidity  of  temperament,  and 
constitutional  inability  to  act  strongly.  And 
these  various  descriptions  embraced  friends  as 
well  as  foes  to  the  administration.  Mr.  Webster 
says  the  order  was  issued  eleven  days  after  that 
Congress  acyoumed  which  had  so  unanimously 
rejected  it  That  Ib  true.  We  only  waited  for 
Congress  to  be  gone  to  issue  the  order.  Mr. 
Benton  was  in  the  room  of  the  private  secre- 
tary (Mr.  Donelson),  hard  by  the  council  cham- 
ber, while  the  cabinet  sat  in  council  upon  this 
measure.  They  were  mostly  against  it  Gen- 
eral Jackson  ordered  it,  and  directed  the  private 
Secretary  to  bring  him  a  draft  of  the  order  to 
be  issued.  He  came  to  Mr.  Benton  to  draw  it 
— ^who  did  so :  and  being  altered  a  little,  it  was 
given  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  be  pro- 
mulgated. Then  Mr.  Benton  asked  for  hisdraft^ 
that  he  might  destroy  it  The  private  secretary 
said  no — that  the  time  might  come  when  it 
should  be  known  who  was  at  the  bottom  of  that 
Treasury  order:  and  that  he  would  keep  it  It 
was  issued  on  the  strong  will  and  clear  head  of 
President  Jackson,'  and  saved  many  ten  millions 
to  the  public  treasury.  Bales  of  bank  notes  were 
on  the  road  to  be  converted  into  pubUc  lands 


AJSTSO  18S7.    ICABTIN  YAH  BUSBIT,  PRESIDENT 


15 


.which  this  order  OTertook,  and  sent  back,  to 
depredate  in  the  Tanlts  of  the  banks  instead  of 
the  coffers  of  the  treasury.  To  repeal  the  order 
hy  law  was  the  effort  as  soon  as  Congress  met, 
and  direct  le^lataon  to  that  effect  was  proposed 
by  Mr.  Ewing,  of  Ohio^  but  superseded  by  a  dr- 
cumlocntory  bill  from  Mr.  Walker  and  Mr. 
BiTes,  whidi  the  President  treated  as  a  nullity 
Ibr  want  of  intelligibility:  and  of  which  Mr. 
"Webster  gave  this  account : 

^  If  he  himself  had  had  power,  he  would  have 
toted  for  Mr.  Swing's  proposition  to  repeal  the 
order,  in  terms  which  Mr.  Butler  and  the  late 
President  could  not  haye  misunderstood;  but 
power  was  so  strong,  and  members  of  Congress 
nad  now  become  so  delicate  about  giving  o&nce 
to  it,  that  it  would  not  do,  for  the  world,  to 
repeal  the  obnoxious  drcular,  plainly  and  forth- 
with ;  but  the  ingenuity  of  the  friends  of  the 
administration  must  dodge  around  it  and  oyer 
it — and  now  Mr.  Butler  had  the  unkmdness  to 
tell  than  that  their  yiews  neither  h^  lawyer  as 
he  i&  nor  the  President,  could  possibly  imder- 
stand  (a  liuigb),  and  that  as  it  could  not  be 
understood,  the  President  nad  pocketed  it — and 
left  it  upon  the  archiyes  of  state,  no  doubt  to 
be  studied  there.  Mr.  W.  would  call  attention 
to  the  remarkable  &ct,  that  though  the  Senate 
acted  upon  this  currency  bill  in  season,  yet  it 
was  put  off  and  put  off— so  that,  by  no  action 
upon  it  before  the  ten  days  allowed  the  Presi- 
dent by  the  constitution,  the  power  oyer  it  was 
completely  in  his  will,  eyen  though  the  whole 
nation  and  eyery  member  of  Congress  wished 
for  its  repeal.  Mr.  W.,  howeyer,  ^lieyed  that 
such  was  the  pressure  ca  public  opinion  upon  the 
new  President,  that  it  must  soon  be  repealed." 

Tliis  amphibology  of  the  bill,  and  delay  in 
passing  it,  and  this  dodging  around  and  oyer, 
was  occasioned  by  what  Mr.  Webster  calls  the 
delicacy  of  some  members  who  had  the  difficult 
part  to  play,  of  going  with  the  enemies  of  the 
administration  without  going  against  the  ad- 
ministration. A  chapter  in  the  first  yolume  of 
this  View  g^yes  the  history  of  this  work ;  and 
the  last  sentence  in  the  passage  quoted  from 
Mr.  Webster's  speech  giyes  the  key  to  the 
yiews  in  which  the  speech  originated,  and  to 
the  proceedings  by  which  it  was  accompanied 
and  followed.  ^ItiM  believed  that  fuch  is  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion  upon  the  new  Pres- 
ident that  it  must  soon  be  repealed?'* 

In  another  part  of  his  speech,  Mr.  Webster 
shows  that  the  repealing  bill  was  put  by  the 
whigs  into  the  hands  of  certain  friends  of  the 
administration,  to  be  by  them  seasoned  into  a 
palatable  dish  \  and  that  they  gained  no  fayor 


with  the  " bold  man"  who  despised  flind>inR 
and  loyed  decision,  eyan  in  a  foe.    Thus : 

« At  the  commencement  of  the  last  sesdon, 
as  you  know,  gentlemen,  a  resolution  was 
brought  forward  in  the  Senate  for  annulling 
and  abrogating  this  order,  by  Mr.  £win(^  a  gen- 
tleman of  much  intelligenoe.  of  sound  prmdplea, 
of  yigorous  and  enereetic  character,  whose  loss 
from  the  serrioe  of  the  country,  I  regard  as  a 
public  misfortune.  The  whig  members  all  sup- 
ported this  resolution,  and  ul  the  members^  I 
belieye,  with  the  exception  of  some  fiye  or  sul 
were  yeiy  anxious,  in  some  way,  to  get  rid  of 
the  treasury  order.  But  Mr.  Swing's  resolu- 
tion was  too  direct  It  was  deemed  a  pointed 
and  ungradous  attack  on  executiye  poli<7. 
Therefore,  it  must  be  softened,  modified,  quaiN 
fied,  made  to  sound  less  harsh  to  the  ears  oC 
men  in  power,  and  to  aasnme  a  plaudble^  pol> 
ished,  inoffensiye  character.  It  was  accordiiijg^ 
put  into  the  plastic  hands  of  the  fHends  of  the 
executiye,  to  oe  moulded  and  fiishioned,  so  tiliat 
it  might  haye  the  effect  of  ridding  the  country 
of  tlM  obnoxious  order,  and  yet  not  appear  to 
question  executiye  in&llibility.  All  this  did 
not  answer.  The  late  President  is  not  a  man 
to  be  satisfied  with  soft  words ;  and  he  saw  in 
the  measure,  eyen  as  it  passed  the  two  housefly 
a  substantial  repeal  of  the  order.  He  is  a  man 
of  boldness  and  dednon ;  and  he  respects  bold- 
ness and  decision  in  others.  K  you  are  his 
friend,  he  expects  no  flinching ;  and  if  you  are 
his  adyersary,  he  respects  you  none  the  less,  for 
carrying  your  oppootion  to  the  full  limits  of 
honorable  waifrtre." 

Mr.  Webster  must  haye  been  greatly  dissat- 
isfied with  lus  democratic  allies,  when  he  could 
thus,  in  a  public  speech,  before  such  an  audi- 
ence, and  within  one  short  month  after  they 
had  been  co-operating  with  him,  hold  them  19 
as  equally  unmeritable  in  the  eyes  of  both 
parties. 

History  deems  it  essential  to  present  this 
New  York  speech  of  Mr.  Webster  as  part  of  a 
great  moyement,  without  a  knowledge  of  which 
the  yiew  would  be  imperfect  It  yras  the  first 
formal  public  step  which  was  to  inaugurate  the 
new  distress,  and  organize  the  proceedings  for 
shutting  up  the  banks,  and  with  them,  the  fed- 
eral treasury,  with  a  yiew  to  coerce  the  goyem- 
ment  into  submisdon  to  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  and  its  confederate  politicians.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  yras  a  man  of  great  suayity  and  gentie- 
ness  of  deportment,  and,  to  those  who  associated 
the  idea  of  yiolenoe  with  firmness,  might  be 
supposed  defident  in  that  quality.  An  expezi- 
ment  upon  his  neryes  was  resolyed  on — a  pres* 
sure  of  public  opinion,  in  the  language  of  Mr 


16 


THIRTr  YEARS'  VIEW. 


Webster,  under  which  his  gentle  temperament 
was  expected  to  yield. 


CHAPTBE  IV. 

PBOGBESS  OF  THE  DISTBESS.  ASD  PBELIM- 
mASIBS  FOB  THE  BUSFEN8I0N. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Webeter— his  appeal  for 
action—- was  soon  followed  by  its  appointed  con- 
oeqnenoe — an  immense  meeting  in  the  city  of 
New  Tork.  The  speech  did  not  produce  the 
meeting,  any  more  than  the  meeting  produced 
the  speech.  Both  were  in  the  prognunme,  and 
performed  as  prescribed,  in  their  respective 
places— the  speech  first,  the  meeting  afterwards ; 
and  the  latter  justified  by  the  former.  It  was 
an  immense  assemblage,  composed  of  the  elite 
of  what  was  foremost  in  the  dty  for  property, 
talent,  respectability;  and  took  for  its  business 
the  consideration  of  the  times :  the  distress  of 
the  thnes,  and  the  nature  of  the  remedy.  The 
imposing  form  of  a  meeting,  solemn  as  well  as 
numerous  and  respectable^  was  gone  through : 
speeches  made,  resolutions  adopted :  order  and 
emphasis  given  to  the  prooeediogs.  A  presi- 
dent, ten  vice-presidents,  two  secretaries,  seven 
orators  (Mr.  Webster  not  among  them :  he 
had  performed  his  part,  and  made  his  exit), 
officiated  in  the  ceremonies ;  and  thousands  of 
citizens  constituted  the  accumulated  mass. 
The  spirit  and  proceedings  of  the  meeting  were 
concentrated  in  a  series  of  resolves,  each  stronger 
than  the  other,  and  each  more  welcome  than 
the  former ;  and  all  progressive,  from  hcta  and 
principles  declared,  to  duties  and  performances 
recommeijded.  The  first  resolve  declared  the 
existence  of  the  distress,  and  made  the  picture 
gloomy  enough.    It  was  in  these  words : 

'^  Whereas,  the  great  commercial  interests  of 
our  city  have  nearly  reached  a  point  of  general 
ruin— our  merchants  driven  from  a  state  of 
prosperity  to  that  of  unprecedented  difficulty 
and  bankniptcy-^'the  busmess,  activity  and 
energy,  which  have  heretofore  made  us  the 
polar  star  of  the  new  world,  is  daily  sinking, 
and  taking  from  us  the  fruits  of  years  of  indus- 
try—reducing the  aged  among  us,  who  but  yes- 
tmay  were  sufficiently  in  affluence,  to  a  state 
of  comparative  want;  and  blighting  the  pros- 
pects, and  blasting  the  hopes  of  the  young 
throi^hout  our  once  prosperous  land :  we  deem 
it  our  duty  to  express  to  the  country  our  situa- 
tion and  desires,  while  yet  there  is  time  to  re- 
trace error,  and  secure  those  rights  and  perpet- 


uate those  prindples  which  were  bequeathed  us 
by  our  fathers,  and  which  we  are  bound  to  make 
every  honorable  eflK>rt  to  maintain." 

After  the  fact  of  the  distress,  thus  established 
by  a  resolve,  came  the  cause;  and  this  was  the 
condensation  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech,  collect- 
ing into  a  point  what  had  been  oratorically  dif- 
fused over  a  wide  surface.  What  was  itself  a 
condensation  caimot  be  further  abridged,  and 
must  be  g^ven  in  its  own  words : 

"That  the  wide-spread  disaster  which  has 
overtaken  the  commercial  interests  of  the  coun- 
try, and  which  threatens  to  produce  general 
bankruptcy,  may  be  in  a  great  measure  ascribed 
to  the  interference  of  the  general  government 
with  the  commercial  and  busmess  operations 
of  the  country ;  its  intermeddling  with  the  cur- 
rency; its  destruction  of  the  national  bank; 
its  attempt  to  substitute  a  metallic  for  a  credit 
currency;  and,  finally,  to  the  issuing  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  of  the  treasury 
order,  known  as  the  "  specie  circular." 

The  next  resolve  foreshadowed  the  conse- 
quences which  follow  from  governmental  perse- 
verance in  such  calamitous  measures — general 
bankruptcy  to  the  dealing  classes,  starvation  to 
the  laboring  classes,  public  convulsions,  and 
danger  to  our  political  institutions;  with  an  ad- 
monition to  the  new  President  of  what  m^^ht 
hi4>pen  to  himself,  if  he  persevered  in  the  ^  e2> 
periments"  of  a  predecessor  whose  tyranny 
and  oppression  had  made  him  the  scourge  of  his 
country.    But  let  the  resolve  speak  for  itself: 

"That  while  we  would  do  nothing  which 
might  for  a  moment  compromit  our  respect  for 
the  laws,  we  feel  it  incumbent  upon  us  to  re- 
mind the  executive  of  the  nation,  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  country,  as  of  late  administCTcd. 
has  become  the  oppressor  of  the  people,  insteaa 
of  affording  them  protection — ^that  his  persever- 
ance in  the  experiment  of  his  predecessor  (after 
the  public  voice,  in  every  way  in  which  that 
voice  could  be  expressed,  has  clearly  denounced 
it  as  ruinous  to  Uie  best  interests  of  tlie  coun- 
try) has  already  caused  the  ruin  of  thousands 
of  merchants,  thrown  tens  of  thousands  of  me- 
chanics and  laborers  out  of  employment  depre- 
ciated the  value  oi  our  great  staple  millions  of 
dollars,  destroyed  the  internal  exchanges,  and 
prostrated  the  energies  and  blighted  -the  pros- 
pects of  the  industrious  and  enterprising  por- 
tion of  our  people ;  and  must,  if  persevered  in, 
not  only  produce  starvation  among  the  labor- 
ing classes,  but  inevitably  lead  to  disturbances 
which  may  endanger  the  stability  of  our  insti- 
tutions themselves." 

This  word  ^experimenJL "  had  become  a  stap 
pie  phrase  in  all  the  distress  oratory  and  litera- 


ANNO  18S7.    MARtnr  YAK  BUBEN,  FBEBIDENT. 


17 


tare  oi  tho  day,  Bometimes  heightened  bj  the 
prefix  of  ^  quack^^  and  was  applied  to  all  the 
efforts  of  the  Administration  to  return  the  fed- 
eral government  to  the  hard  money  currency, 
which  was  the  currency  of  the  constitution  and 
the  currency  of  all  oonntries ;  and  which  efforts 
were  now  treated  as  novelties  and  dangerous 
innovations.  Universal  was  the  use  of  the 
phrase  by  one  of  the  political  parties  some 
twenty  years  ago :  dead  silent  are  their  tongues 
upon  it  now!  Twenty  years  of  successful 
working  of  the  government  under  the  hard 
money  system  has  put  an  end  to  the  repetition 
of  a  phrase  which  has  suffered  the  &te  of  all 
catch-words  of  party,  and  became  more  dis- 
tasteful to  its  old  employers  than  it  ever  was 
to  their  adversaries.  It  has  not  been  heard 
since  the  federal  government  got  divorced  from 
bank  and  paper  money !  since  gold  and  silver 
has  become  the  sole  currency  of  the  federal  gov- 
ernment! since,  in  fact,  the  memorable  epoch 
when  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  (former 
sovereign  remedy  for  all  the  ills  the  body  poli- 
tic was  heir  to)  has  become  a  defect  authority, 
and  an  "  obsolete  idea." 

The  next  resolve  proposed  a  direct  movement 
upon  the  President — ^nothing  less  than  a  com- 
mittee of  fifty  to  wait  upon  him,  and  "  remon- 
strate^^  with  him  upon  what  was  called  the 
ruinous  measures  of  the  government. 

"  That  a  committee  of  not  less  than  fifty  be 
appointed  to  repair  to  Washinj^ton,  and  remon- 
strate with  the  Executive  agamst  the  continu- 
ance of  "  the  specie  circular;"  and  in  behalf  of 
this  meeting  and  in  the  name  of  the  merchants 
of  New  York,  and  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  urge  its  inmiediate  repeal." 

This  fomudable  committee,  limited  to  a  min- 
imum of  fifty,  open  to  a  maximum  of  any 
amount,  besides  this  "remonstrance"  against 
the  specie  circular,  were  also  instructed  to  pe- 
tition the  President  to  forbear  the  collection  of 
merchants'  bonds  by  suit ;  and  also  to  caU  an 
extra  lession  of  Congress.  The  first  of  these 
measures  was  to  stop  the  collection  of  the  ac- 
cruing revenues:  the  second,  to  obtain  from 
Congress  that  submission  to  the  bank  power 
which  could  not  be  obtained  fbom  the  Presi- 
dent. Formidable  as  were  the  arrangements 
for  acting  on  the  President  provision  was  dis- 
creetly made  for  a  possible  fiulure,  and  for  the 
prosecution  of  other  measures.  With  this  view, 
Vol.  II.— 2 


the  committee  of  fifty,  after  their  return  firom 
Washington,  were  directed  to  call  another  gen- 
eral meetmg  of  the  citizens  of  New  York,  and 
to  report  to  them  the  results  of  their  mission. 
A  concluding  resolution  invited  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  other  great  cities  in  these  proceed- 
ings, and  seemed  to  look  to  an  imposing  demon- 
stration of  physical  force,  and  strong  determina- 
tion, as  a  means  of  acting  on  the  mind,  or  will 
of  the  President ;  and  thus  controlling  the  firee 
action  of  the  constitutional  authorities.  This 
resolve  was  specially  addressed  to  the  merchants 
of  Philadelphia,  Boston  and  Baltimore,  and  gen- 
erally addressed  to  all  other  commercial  cities, 
and  earnestly  prayed  their  assistance  in  saving 
the  whole  country  from  ruin. 

^That  merchants  of  Philadelphia,  Boston, 
Baltimore,  and  the  commercial  cities  of  the 
Union,  be  respectfully  requested  to  unite  with 
us  in  our  remonstrance  and  petition,  and  to  use 
their  exertions,  in  connection  with  us,  to  induce 
the  Executive  of  the  nation  to  listen  to  the  voice 
of  the  people,  and  to  recede  from  a  measure 
under  the  evils  of  which  we  are  now  laboring, 
and  which  threatens  to  involve  the  whok 
country  in  ruin." 

The  language  and  import  of  all  these  resolves 
and  proceedings  were  sufficiently  strong,  and 
indicated  a  feeling  but  little  short  of  violence 
towards  the  government ;  but,  according  to  the 
newspapers  of  the  city,  they  were  subdued  and 
moderate — ^tame  and  spiritiess,  in  comparison 
to  the  feeling  which  animated  the  great  meet- 
ing. A  leading  paper  thus  characterized  that 
feeling: 

^  The  meeting  was  a  remarkable  one  for  the 
vast  numbers  assembled — the  entire  decorum 
of  the  proceedings — and  especially  for  the  deep^ 
though  subdued  and  restrained,  excitement 
which  evidently  pervaded  the  mighty  mass. 
It  was  a  spectacle  that  could  not  be  looked 
upon  without  emotion, — ^that  of  many  thousand 
men  trembling,  as  it  were,  on  the  brink  of 
ruin,  owing  to  the  measures,  as  they  verily  be- 
lieve, of  their  own  government,  which  should 
be  their  friend^  instead  of  their  oppressor — and 
yet  meeting  with  deliberation  and  calmness,  lis- 
tening to  a  narrative  of  their  wrongs,  and  the 
causes  thereof,  adopting  such  resolutions  as 
were  deemed  Judicious ;  and  then  ouietlv  .sepa- 
rating, to  abide  the  result  of  their  nrm  but  re- 
spectSil  remonstrances.  But  it  is  proper  and 
fit  to  say  that  this  moderation  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  pusillanimity,  nor  be  trified  with,  as 
though  it  could  not  oy  any  aggravation  of 
wrong  be  moved  fW>m  its  propriety.    No  man 


18 


THIRTY  TEARS'  VIEW. 


McuBtomed,  from  the  expression  of  the  oounte- 
nance,  to  translate  the  emotions  of  the  hearty 
oould  have  looked  upon  the  faces  and  the  bear- 
ing of  the  multitude  assembled  last  eyening,  and 
not  haye  felt  that  there  were  fires  smouldering 
there,  which  a  single  spark  might  cause  to  burst 
into  name." 

Smouldering  fires  wbich  a  single  spark  might 
light  into  a  flame !  Possibly  that  spark  might 
haye  been  the  opposing  yoice  of  some  citizen, 
who  thought  the  meeting  mistaken,  both  in  the 
fitct  of  the  ruin  of  the  country  and  the  attribu- 
tion of  that  ruin  to  the  specie  circular.  No 
such  yoice  was  lifted — ^no  such  spark  applied, 
and  the  proposition  to  march  10,000  men  to 
Washington  to  demand  a  redress  of  grieyances 
was  not  sanctioned.  The  committee  of  fifty 
was  deemed  sufficient,  as  they  certainly  were, 
for  eyery  purpose  of  peaceful  communication. 
They  were  eminently  respectable  citizens,  any 
two,  or  any  one  of  which,  or  eyen  a  mail  trans- 
mission of  their  petition,  would  haye  com- 
manded for  it  a  most  respectful  attention. 
The  grand  committee  arriyed  at  Washington — 
asked  an  audienc^'of  the  President — receiyed 
it;  but  with  the  precaution  (to  ayoid  mistakes) 
that  written  communications  should  alone  be 
used.  The  committee  therefore  presented  their 
demands  in  writing,  and  a  paragraph  from  it 
will  show  the  degree  to  which  the  feeling  of  the 
dty  had  allowed  itself  to  be  worked  up. 

"  We  do  not  tcU  a  fictitious  tale  of  woe ;  we 
haye  no  selfish  or  partisan  yiews  to  sustain, 
when  we  assure  you  that  the  noble  dty  which 
we  represent,  lies  prostrate  in  despair,  its  credit 
blighted,  its  industry  paralyzed,  and  without  a 
hope  beaming  through  the  darkness  of  the 
future,  unless  the  goyemment  of  our  country 
can  be  induced  to  relinquish  the  measures  to 
which  we  attribute  our  distress.  We  fully 
appreciate  the  respect  which  is  due  to  our  chief 
magistrate,  and  disclaim  eyery  intention  incon- 
aistent  with  that  feeling ;  but  we  speak  in  be- 
half of  a  community  whidi  trembles  upon  the 
brink  of  ruin,  whidi  deems  itself  an  adequate 
judge  of  all  questions  connected  with  the  trade 
and  currency  of  the  country,  and  belieyes  that 
the  policy  adopted  by  the  recent  administra- 
tion, and  sustained  by  the  present  is  founded 
in  error,  and  threatens  the  destruction  of  eyery 
department  of  industry.  Under  a  deep  impres- 
sion 6f  the  propriety  of  confining  our  dedara- 
tions  wit W  moderate  limits,  we  affirm  that  the 
yaiue  of  our  real  estate  has,  within  the  last  six 
months^  depreciated  more  than  forty  millions : 
that  within  the  last  two  months,  there  haye 
been  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  failures 


of  houses  engaged  in  extensiye  business :  that 
within  the  same  period,  a  dedine  of  twenty 
millions  of  dollars  has  occurred  in  our  local 
stocks,  including  those  railroad  and  canal  in- 
corporations, which,  though  chartered  in  other 
States,  depend  chiefly  upon  New  York  for  their 
sale :  that  the  immense  amount  of  merchandise 
in  our  warehouses  has  within  the  same  period 
fallen  in  yalue  at  least  thirty  per  cent. ;  that 
within  a  few  weeks,  not  less  than  twenty  thou- 
sand indiyiduals,  depending  on  their  daily  labor 
for  their  daily  bread,  haye  been  discharged  by 
their  employers  because  the  means  of  retaining 
them  were  exhausted — ^and  that  a  complete 
blight  has  fallen  upon  a  community  heretofore 
so  actiye,  enterprising  and  prosperous.  The 
error  of  our  rulers  has  produced  a  wider  deso- 
lation than  the  pestilence  which  depopulated 
our  streets,  or  the  conflagration,  which  laid 
them  in  ashes.  We  belieye  that  it-  is  unjust  to 
attribute  these  eyils  to  any  excessiye  deyelop- 
ment  of  mercantile  enterprise,  and  that  they 
really  flow  from  that  unwise  system  which 
aimed  at  the  substitution  of  a  metallic  for  a 
paper  currency — ^the  system  which  gaye  the 
first  shock  to  the  fiibrio  of  our  commercial 
prosperity  hj  remoying  the  public  deposits 
from  the  United  States  bank,  which  weil^ened 
eyery  part  of  the  edifice  by  the  destruction  of 
that  useful  and  efficient  institution,  and  now 
threatens  to  crumble  it  into  a  mass  of  ruins 
under  the  operations  of  the  specie  circular, 
which  withdrew  the  gold  and  silyer  of  the 
country  from  the  channels  in  which  it  could  be 
profitably  employed.  We  assert  that  the  ex- 
periment has  had  a  fair — a  liberal  trial,  and  that 
disappointment  and  mischief  are  yisible  in  all 
its  results — ^that  the  promise  of  a  regulated 
currency  and  equalized  exchanges  has  been 
broken,  the  currency  totally  disordered,  and  in- 
ternal exchanges  almost  entirely  discontinued. 
We,  therefore,  make  our  earnest  appeal  to  the 
Executiye,  and  ask  whether  it  is  not  time  to  in- 
terpose the  paternal  authority  of  the  eoyem- 
ment  and  abandon  the  policy  which  is  beggar^ 
ing  the  people." 

The  address  was  read  to  the  President  He 
heard  it  with  entire  composure — made  no  sort 
of  remark  upon  it—treated  the  gentlemen  with 
exquisite  politeness — and  promised  them  a 
written  answer  the  next  day.  This  was  the 
third  of  May :  on  the  fourth  the  answer  was 
deliyered.  It  was  an  answer  worthy  of  a  Pres- 
ident— a  calm,  quiet,  decent,  peremptory  refusal 
to  comply  with  a  single  one  of  their  demands ! 
with  a  brief  reason,  ayoiding  all  controyersy,  and 
foredosingjJl  further  application,  by  a  clean  re- 
fusal in  each  case.  The  committee  had  nothing 
to  do  but  to  return,  and  report:  and  they  did 
so.    There  had  been  a  mistake  committed  in 


ASSO  18Sf.    HABTm  VAN  BUREK,  PREaiDENT. 


19 


the  estimate  of  the  man.  Mr.  Van  Buren  yin* 
dioated  equally  the  rights  of  the  chief  magia- 
trate,  and  his  own  personal  decorum ;  and  left 
the  committee  without  any  thing  to  complain  of, 
although  unsuooeseful  in  all  their  objects.  He 
also  had  another  opportunity  of  vindicating  his 
personal  and  oflSdal  decorum  in  another  visit 
which  he  received  about  the  same  time.  Mr. 
Biddle  caUed  to  see  the  President — apparently 
a  call  of  respect  on  the  chief  magistrate — about 
the  same  time,  but  evidently  with  the  design  to 
be  consulted,  and  to  appear  as  the  great  restorer 
of  the  currency.  Mr.  Van  Buien  received  the 
visit  according  to  its  apparent  intent,  with  en- 
tire civility,  and  without  a  word  on  public 
affairs.  Believing  Mr.  Biddle  to  be  at  the  bottom 
of  the  suspension,  he  could  not  treat  him  with 
the  confidence  and  respect  which  a  consultation 
would  imply.  He  (Mr.  Biddle)  felt  the  slight, 
and  caused  this  notice  to  be  put  in  the  papers : 

"  Bemg  on  other  business  at  Washington,  Mr. 
Biddle  took  occasion  to  call  on  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  to  pay  his  respects  to  him 
in  that  character,  and  especially,  to  afford  the 
President  an  op{M>rtunity,  if  he  chose  to  em- 
brace it,  to  speak  of  the  present  state  of  things, 
and  to  confer,  if  he  saw  fit,  with  the  head  of  the 
lai^est  banking  institution  in  the  country— and 
that  the  institution  in  which  such  general  ap- 
plication has  been  made  for  relief.  During  the 
interview^  however,  the  President  remained  pro- 
foundly silent  upon  the  great  and  interesting 
topics  of  the  da^ ;  and  as  Mr.  Biddle  did  not 
think  it  his  busmess  to  introduce  them,  not  a 
word  in  relation  to  them  was  said." 

Returning  to  New  Tork,  the  committee  con- 
voked another  general  meeting  of  the  citizens, 
as  required  to  do  at  the  time  of  their  appoint- 
ment; and  made  their  report  to  it,  recommend- 
ing further  forbearance,  and  further  reliance  on 
the  ballot  box,  although  (as  they  said)  history 
recorded  many  .popular  insurrections  where  the 
provocation  was  less.  A  passage  ifrom  this  report 
will  show  its  spirit,  and  to  what  excess  a  commu- 
nity may  be  excited  about  nothing,  by  the  mu- 
tual inflammation  of  each  other's  passions  and 
complaints,  combined  vrith  a  power  to  act  upon 
the  business  and  interests  of  the  people. 

"  From  this  correspondence  it  is  obvious,  fel- 
low-citizens, that  we  must  abandon  allnope 
that  either  the  justice  of  our  claims  or  the  se- 
verity of  our  sifrerings  will  induce  the  Execu- 
tive to  abandon  or  relax  the  policy  which  has 
produced  such  desolating  effect&^rand  it  remains 


for  us  to  consider  what  more  is  to  be  done  ia 
this  awful  crisis  of  our  affairs.  Our  first  duty 
under  losses  and  distresses  which  we  have  en- 
dured, is  to  cherish  with  religious  care  the 
blessings  which  we  yet  enjoy,  and  which  can  be 

Erotected  only  by  a  strict  observance  of  the 
Lws  upon  which  society  depends  for  security 
and  happiness.  We  do  not  disguise  our  opinion 
that  the  pages  of  history  record,  and  the  opin- 
ions of  mankind  justify,  numerous  instances  of 
popular  insurrection,  the  provocation  to  which 
was  less  severe  than  the  evils  of  which  we  com- 
plain. But  in  these  cases,  the  outraged  and 
oppressed  had  no  other  means  of  redress.  Our 
case  is  different  If  we  can  succeed  in  an  effort 
to  bring  public  opinion  into  svmpathy  with  the 
views  which  we  entertain,  the  Executive  will 
abandon  the  policy  which  oppresses,  instead  of 
protecting  the  people.  Do  not  despair  because 
the  time  at  which  the  ballot  box  can  exerdse 
its  healing  influence  appears  so  remote — ^the  sar 
gacity  of  the  practical  politician  will  perceive 
the  change  in  public  sentiment  before  you  are 
aware  of  its  approach.  But  the  effort  to  pro- 
duce this  change  must  be  vigorous  and  untir- 
ing." 

The  meeting  adopted  corresponding  resolu- 
tions. Despairing  of  acting  on  the  Piesident^ 
the  move  was  to  act  upon  the  people — ^to  rouse 
and  combine  them  against  an  administration 
which  was  destroying  their  industry,  and  to  re- 
move fix)m  power  (at  the  elections)  those  who 
were  destroying  the  industry  of  the  country. 
Thus: 

**  Resolved^  That  the  mterests  of  the  capital- 
ists, merchants,  manufacturers,  mechanics  and  in- 
dustrious classes,  are  dependent  upon«ach  other, 
and  any  measures  of  the  government  whic^ 
prostrate  the  active  business  men  of  the  com- 
munity, will  also  deprive  honest  industry  of  its 
reward  5  and  we  call  upon  all  our  fellow-citizens 
to  unite  with  us  in  removing  firom  power  those 
who  persist  in  a  system  that  is  destrojring  the 
prosperity  of  our  country." 

Another  resolve  summed  up  the  list  of  griev- 
ances of  which  they  complained,  and  enumerat-  . 
ed  the  causes  of  the  pervading  ruin  which  had 
been  brought  upon  the  country.    Thus : 

"  Resolved^  That  the  chief  causes  of  the  ex* 
isting  distress  are  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Clay's  land 
bill,  the  removal  of  the  public  deposits,  the  re- 
fiisal  to  re-charter  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  issuing  of  the  e^ode  cinmlar. 
The  land  bill  was  passed  by  the  people's  i^pre- 
sentatives,  and  vetoed  by  the  President— the  bill 
rechartering  the  bank  was  passed  by  the  peo- 

Ss  representatives,  and  vetoed  by  the  Presi- 
t    The  people's  representatives  declared  by 
a  SQlemn  resolution,  that  the  public  deposits 


20 


THIRTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


were  safe  in  the  United  States  Bank ;  within  a 
few  weeks  thereafter,  the  President  removed  the 
public  deposits.  The  people's  representatiyes 
passed  a  bill  rescinding  the  specie  circular :  the 
President  destroyed  it  bv  omitting  to  return  it 
within  the  limited  period;  and  in  the  answer  to 
our  addresses,  President  Van  Buren  declares 
that  the  specie  circular  was  issued  by  his  pr^ 
decessor,  omitting  all  notice  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  who  is  amenable  directly  to  Con- 
gress, and  charged  by  the  act  creating  his  de- 
partment with  the  superintendence  of  the  finan- 
ces, and  who  signed  the  order." 

These  two  resolves  deserve  to  be  noted.  They 
were  not  empty  or  impotent  menace.  They 
were  for  action,  and  became  what  they  were  in- 
tended for.  The  moneyed  corporations,  imited 
with  a  political  party,  were  in  the  field  as  a  po- 
litical power,  to  govern  the  elections,  and  to 
govern  them,  by  the  only  means  known  to  a 
moneyed  power — by  operating  on  the  interests 
of  men,  seducing  some,  alarming  and  distressing 
the  masses.  They  are  the  key  to  the  manner  of 
oondupting  the  presidential  election,  and  which 
will  be  spoken  of  in  the  proper  place.  The 
union  of  Church  and  State  has  been  generally 
condemned :  the  union  of  Bank  and  State  is  far 
more  condenmable.  Here  the  union  was  not 
with  the  State,  but  with  a  political  party,  nearly 
as  strong  as  the  party  in  possession  of  the 
government)  and  exemplified  the  evils  of  the 
meretricious  connection  between  money  and 
politics ;  and  nothing  but  this  union  could  have 
produced  the  state  of  things  which  so  long 
afflicted  the  country,  and  from  which  it  has 
been  relieved,  not  by  the  cessation  of  their  im- 
puted causes,  but  by  their  perpetuation.  It  is 
now  near  twenty  years  since  this  great  meeting 
was  held  in  New  York.  The  ruinous  measures 
complained  of  have  not  been  revoked,  but  be- 
come permanent  They  have  been  in  full  force, 
and  made  stronger,  for  near  twenty  years.  The 
universal  and  black  destruction  which  was  to  en- 
sue their  briefest  continuance,  has  been  substi- 
tuted by  the  most  solid,  brilliant,  pervading,  and 
abiding  prosperity  that  any  people  ever  beheld. 
Thanks  to  the  divorce  of  Bank  and  State.  But 
the  consummation  was  not  yet.  Strong  in  her 
name,  and  old  recollections,  and  in  her  political 
connections — dominant  over  other  banks — ^brib- 
ing with  one  hand,  scourging  with  the  other— a 
long  retinue  of  debtors  and  retainers— desperate 
in  her  condition— impotent  for  good,  powerful 
for  evil— conlbderated  with  restiess  politicians, 


and  wickedly,  corruptly,  and  revengefully  ruled: 
the  Great  Red  Harlot,  pro&ning  the  name  of  a 
National  Bank,  was  still  to  continue  a  while 
longer  its  career  of  abominations— maintaining 
dubious  contest  with  the  government  which 
created  it,  upon  whose  name  and  revenues  it 
had  gained  the  wealth  and  power  of  which  it 
was  still  the  shade,  and  whose  destruction  it 
plotted  because  it  could  not  rule  it  Posterity 
should  know  these  things,  that  by  avoiding  bank 
connections,  their  governments  may  avoid  the 
evils  that  we  have  suffered ;  and,  by  seeing  the 
excitements  of  1837,  they  may  save  themselves 
firom  ever  becoming  the  victims  of  such  delusion. 


CHAPTER    V. 

ACTUAL  BtrSPENSION  OF  THE  BANES:  PROPAGA- 
TION OF  THE  ALABM. 

None  of  the  public  meetings,  and  there  were 
many  following  the  leading  one  in  New  York, 
recommended  in  terms  a  suspension  of  specie 
payments  by  the  banks.  All  avoided,  by  con- 
cert or  instinct)  the  naming  of  that  high 
measure ;  but  it  was  in  the  list,  and  at  the  head 
of  the  list,  of  the  measures  to  be  adopted;  and 
every  thing  said  or  done  was  with  a  view  to  that 
crowning  event ;  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  it 
before  it  came ;  and  to  plead  its  subsequent  justi- 
fication by  showing  its  previous  necessity.  It 
was  in  the  programme,  and  bound  to  come  in  its 
appointed  time ;  and  did— and  that  within  a  few 
days  after  the  last  great  meeting  in  New  York. 
It  took  place  quietiy  and  generally,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  10th  of  May,  altogether,  and  with  a 
concert  and  punctaality  of  action,  and  with  a 
military  and  police  preparation,  which  an- 
nounced arrangement  and  detemunation ;  such 
as  attend  revolts  and  insurrections  in  other 
countries.  The  preceding  night  all  the  banks 
of  the  city,  three  excepted,  met  by  their  officers, 
and  adopted  resolutions  to  close  their  doors  in 
the  morning :  and  gave  out  notice  to  that  effect 
At  the  same  time  three  regiments  of  volunteers, 
and  a  squadron  of  horse,  were  placed  on  duty  in 
the  principal  parts  of  the  city ;  and  the  entire 
police  force,  lugely  reinforced  with  special  con- 
stables, was  on  foot  This  was  to  suppress  the 
discontent  of  those  who  might  be  too  much 


ANNO  188Y.    IIARTIN  VAN  BX7BEN,  PRESIDENT. 


21 


diBsatisfied  at  being  repulsed  when  they  came  to 
ask  for  the  amount  of  a  deposit,  or  the  contents 
of  a  bank  note.  It  was  a  humiliating  spectacle, 
but  an  effectual  precaution.  The  people  remained 
quiet  At  twelye  o'clock  a  large  meramtile  meet- 
ing took  place.  Resolutions-  were  adopted  hj  it  to 
sustain  the  suspension,  and  the  newspaper  press 
was  profuse  and  energetic  in  its  support  The 
measure  was  consummated :  the  suspension  was 
complete :  it  was  triumphant  in  that  city  whose 
example,  in  such  a  case,  was  law  to  the  rest  of 
the  Union.  But,  let  due  discrimination  be  made. 
Though  all  the  banks  joined  in  the  act,  all  were 
not  equally  culpable;  and  some,  in  fact,  not 
culpable  at  all,  but  yictims  of  the  criminality,  or 
misfortunes  of  others.  It  was  the  effect  of  ne- 
cessity with  the  deposit  banks,  exhausted  by 
'vain  efforts  to  meet  the  quarterly  deliveries  of 
the  forty  millions  to  be  deposited  with  the 
States;  and  pressed  on  all  sides  because  they 
were  goyemment  banks,  and  because  the  pro- 
gramme required  them  to  stop  first  It  was  an 
act  of  self-defence  in  others  which  were  too  weak 
to  stand  alone,  and  which  followed  with  reluc- 
tance an  example  which  they  could  not  resist 
With  others  it  was  an  act  of  policy,  and  of 
criminal  contrivance,  as  the  means  of  carrying  a 
real  distress  into  the  ranks  of  the  people,  and 
exciting  them  against  the  political  party  to 
whose  acts  the  distress  was  attributed.  But  the 
prime  mover,  and  master  manager  of  the  sus^ 
pension,  was  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
then  rotten  to  the  core  and  tottering  to  its  fall, 
but  strong  enough  to  carry  others  with  it,  and 
seeking  to  hide  its  own  downfall  in  the  crash  of 
a  general  catastrophe.  Having  contrived  the 
suspension,  it  wished  to  appear  as  opposing  it, 
and  as  having  been  dragged  down  by  others ;  and 
accordingly  took  the  attitude  of  a  victim.  But 
the  impudence  and  emptiness  of  that  pretension 
was  soon  exposed  by  the  difficulty  which  other 
banks  had  in  forcing  her  to  resume ;  and  by  the 
facility  with  which  she  fell  back,  "  solitary  and 
alone,"  into  the  state  of  permanent  insolvency 
from  which  the  other  banks  had  momentarily 
galvanized  her.  But  the  occasion  was  too  good 
to  be  lost  for  one  of  those  complacent  epistles, 
models  of  quiet  impudence  and  cool  mendacity, 
with  which  Mr.  Biddle  was  accustomed  to  regale 
the  public  in  seasons  of  moneyed  distress  It  was 
impossible  to  forego  such  an  opportunity ;  and, 
accordingly,  three  days  after  the  New  Tork  sus- 


pension, and  two  days  after  his  own,  he  held 
forth  in  a  strain  of  which  the  following  is  a 
sample: 

''All  the  deposit  banks  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States  in  the  dty  of  New  York  sus- 

Cded  specie  payments  this  week — the  deposit 
ks  elsewhere  have  followed  their  example; 
which  was  of  course  adopted  by  the  State  buiks 
not  connected  with  the  government.  I  say  of 
course,  because  it  is  certam  that  when  the  gov- 
ernment banks  cease  to  pay  specie,  all  the  other 
banks  must  cease,  and  for  this  clear  reason.  The 
great  creditor  in  tne  United  States  is  the  govern- 
ment It  receives  for  duties  the  notes  of  the 
various  banks,  which  are  placed  for  collection  in 
certain  government  banks,  and  are  paid  to  those 
government  banks  in  specie  if  requested.  From 
the  moment  that  the  deposit  banks  of  New 
York,  failed  to  comply  with  their  engagements, 
it  was  manifest  that  ail  the  other  deposit  banks 
must  do  the  same,  that  there  must  be  a  universal 
suspension  throughout  the  country,  and  that  the 
treasury  itself  in  the  midst  of  its  nominal  abun- 
dance must  be  practically  bankrupt" 

This  was  all  true.  The  stoppage  of  the  de- 
posit banks  was  the  stoppage  of  the  Treasury. 
Non-payment  by  the  government,  was  an  excuse 
for  non-payment  by  others.  Bankruptcy  was 
the  legal  condition  of  non-payment;  and  that 
condition  was  the  fate  of  the  government  as  well 
as  of  others;  and  all  this  was  perfectly  known 
before  by  those  who  contrived,  and  those  who 
resisted  the  deposit  with  the  States  and  the  use 
of  paper  money  by  the  federal  government. 
These  two  measures  made  the  suspension  and 
the  bankruptcy ;  and  all  this  was  so  obvious  to 
the  writer  of  this  View  that  he  proclaimed  it 
incessantly  in  his  speeches,  and  was  amazed  at 
the  conduct  of  those  professing  friends  of  the 
administration  who  voted  with  the  opposition 
on  these  measures,  and  by  their  votes  insured  the 
bankruptcy  of  the  government  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  support.  Mr.  Biddle  was  right  The 
deposit  banks  were  gone ;  the  federal  treasury 
was  bankrupt ;  and  those  two  events  were  two 
steps  on  the  road  which  was  to  lead  to  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States ! 
and  Mr.  Biddle  stood  ready  with  his  bank  to 
travel  that  road.  The  next  paragraph  displayed 
this  readiness. 

'*  In  the  midst  of  these  disorders  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  occupies  a  peculiar  posi- 
tion, and  has  special  duties.  Had  it  consulted 
merely  its  own  strength  it  would  have  contin- 
ued  its  payments  without  reserve.      But  in 


22 


THIRTT  YEARS'  VIEW. 


Buch  a  state  of  things  the  first  considera- 
tion is  how  to  escape  from  it — ^how  to  provide 
at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  to  change  a 
condition  which  should  not  be  tolerated  beyond 
the  necessity  which  commanded  it.  The  old 
associations,  the  extensive  connections,  the 
established  credit^  the  large  capital  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  rendered  it  the 
natural  rallying  point  of  the  country  for  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments.  It  seemed 
wiser,  therefore,  not  to  waste  its  strength  in  a 
straggle  which  might  be  doubtful  while  the  Exe- 
cutive persevered  in  its  present  policy,  but  to 
husband  all  its  resources  so  as  to  profit  by  the 
first  favorable  moment  to  take  the  lead  in  the 
early  resumption  of  specie  payments.  Aocord- 
Ihgly  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  assumes 
that  position.  From  this  moment  its  efforts 
will  be  to  keep  itself  strong,  and  to  make  itself 
stronger;  always  prepared  and  always  anxious 
to  assist  in  recallmg  the  currency  and  the  ex- 
changes of  the  country  to  the  point  from  which 
they  have  fallen.  It  will  co-operate  cordially 
and  zealously  with  the  government,  with  the 
government  banks,  with  lUl  the  other  banks,  and 
with  any  other  influences  which  can  aid  in  that 
object" 

This  was  a  bold  face  for  an  eviscerated  insti- 
tution to  assume — one  which  was  then  nothing 
but  the  empty  skin  of  an  immolated  victim — 
the  contriver  of  the  suspension  to  cover  its  own 
rottenness,  and  the  architect  of  distress  and 
ruin  that  out  of  the  public  calamity  it  might  get 
again  into  existence  and  replenish  its  cofiers  out 
of  the  revenues  and  credit  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment. ^  Would  have  continued  specie  payments, 
if  it  had  only  consulted  its  own  strength  " — 
«only  suspended  from  a  sense  of  duty  and 
patriotism  " — "  will  take  the  lead  in  resuming  " 
— "  assumes  the  position  of  restorer  of  the  cur- 
reocy  " — "  presents  itself  as  the  rallying  point 
of  the  country  in  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments " — ^^  even  promises  to  co-operate  with  the 
government :  "  such  were  the  impudent  profes- 
sions at  the  very  moment  that  this  restorer  of 
currency,  and  rallying  point  of  resumption,  was 
plotting  a  continuance  of  the  distress  and  sus- 
pension until  it  could  get  hold  of  the  federal 
moneys  to  recover  upon ;  and  without  which  it 
never  could  recover. 

Indissolubly  connected  with  this  bank  suspen- 
sion, and  throwing  abroad  light  upon  its  history, 
(if  further  light  were  wanted,)  was  Mr.  Web- 
ster's tour  to  the  West,  and  the  speeches  which 
he  made  in  the  course  of  it.  The  tour  extended 
to  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  speeches 
took  for  their  burden  the  distress  and  the  sus- 


pension, excusing  and  justifying  the  banks, 
throwing  all  blame  upon  the  government,  and 
looking  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  for 
the  sole  remedy.  It  was  at  Wheeling  that  he 
opened  the  series  of  speeches  which  he  delivered 
in  his  tour,  it  being  at  that  place  that  he  was  over- 
taken by  the  news  of  the  suspension,  and  which 
furnished  him  with  the  text  for  his  discourse. 

"  Recent  evils  have  not  at  all  surprised  me,  ex- 
cept that  they  have  come  sooner  and  faster  than 
I  had  anticipated.  But,  though  not  surprised, 
I  am  afflicted ;  I  feel  any  thing  but  pleasure  in 
this  early  fulfilment  of  my  own  predictions. 
Much  injury  is  done  which  the  wisest  future 
counsels  can  never  repair,  and  much  more  that 
can  never  be  remedied  but  by  sudi  counsels  and 
by  the  lapse  of  time.  From  1832  to  the  present 
moment  I  have  foreseen  this  result.  I  may 
safely  say  I  have  foreseen  it,  because  I  have 
presented  and  proclaimed  its  approach  in 
every  important  discussion  and  debate,  in  the 
public  body  of  which  I  am  a  member.  We 
learn  to-day  that  most  of  the  eastern  banks 
have  stopped  payment ;  deposit  banks  as 
well  as  others.  The  experiment  has  exploded. 
That  bubble,  which  so  many  of  us  have  all 
along  regarded  as  the  ofispring  of  conceit,  pre- 
sumption and  political  quackery,  has  burst  A 
general  suspension  of  payment  must  be  the  re- 
sult ;  a  result  which  has  come,  even  sooner  tlum 
was  predicted.  Where  is  now  that  better  cur- 
rency that  was  promised?  Where  is  that  spe- 
cie circulation  ?  Where  are  those  rupees  of  gold 
and  silver,  which  were  to  fill  the  treasurv  of  the 
government  as  well  as  the  pockets  of  the  peo- 
ple ?  Has  the  government  a  single  hard  dollar? 
Has  the  treasury  any  thing  in  the  world  but 
credit  and  deposits  in  banks  that  have  already 
suspended  payment  ?  How  are  public  creditors 
now  to  be  paid  in  specie  ?  How  are  the  depo- 
sits, which  the  law  requires  to  be  made  with  the 
states  on  the  1st  of  July,  now  to  be  made." 

This  was  the  firat  speech  that  Mr.  Webster 
delivered  after  the  great  one  before  the  suspen- 
sion in  New  York,  and  may  be  considered  the 
epilogue  afler  the  performance  as  the  former 
was  the  prologue  before  it.  It  is  a  speech  of 
exultation,  with  bitter  taunts  to  the  government 
In  one  respect  his  information  was  different  from 
mine.  He  said  the  suspension  came  sooner  than 
was  expected :  my  information  was  that  it  came 
later,  a  month  later ;  and  that  he  himself  was 
the  cause  of  the  delay.  My  information  was 
that  it  was  to  take  place  in  the  first  month  of 
Mr.  Van  Buien's  administration,  and  that  the 
speech  which  was  to  precede  it  vras  to  be  delivered 
early  in  March,  immediately  after  the  ai^ouni- 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


23 


ment  of  Congress :  but  it  was  not  delivered  tiU 
the  middle  of  that  month,  nor  got  ready  for 
pamphlet  publication  until  the  middle  of  April ; 
whic^  delay  occasioned  a  corresponding  postr 
ponement  in  all  the  subsequent  proceedings. 
The  complete  shutting  up  of  the  treasury— the 
loas  of  its  moneys — the  substitution  of  broken 
bank  paper  for  hard  money — the  impossibility 
of  paying  a  dollar  to  a  creditor :  tbese  were  the 
points  of  his  complacent  declamation :  and  hay- 
ing made  these  points  strong  enough  and  clear 
enough,  he  came  to  the  remedy,  and  fell  upon 
the  same  one,  in  almost  the  same  words,  that 
Mr.  Biddle  was  using  at  the  same  time,  four 
hundred  miles  distant,  in  Philadelphia:  and 
that  without  the  aid  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
not  then  in  use.  The  recourse  to  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was  that  remedy  !  that  bank 
strong  enough  to  hold  out,  (unhappily  the  news 
of  its  suspending  arrived  while  he  was  speak- 
ing :)  patriotic  enough  to  do  so !  but  under  no 
obligation  to  do  better  than  the  deposit  banks ! 
and  justifiable  in  following  their  example.  Hear 
him: 

"  The  United  States  Bank,  now  a  mere  state 
institution,  with  no  public  deposits,  no  aid  from 
government,  but,  on  the  contrary,  long  an  object 
of  bitter  prsecution  by  it,  was  at  our  latest 
advices  still  firm.  But  can  we  expect  of  that 
Bank  to  make  sacrifices  to  continue  specie  pay- 
ment ?  If  it  continue  to  do  so,  now  the  depo- 
sit banks  have  stopped,  the  government  will 
draw  from  it  its  last  dollar,  if  it  can  do  so,  in 
order  to  keep  up  a  pretence  of  making  its  own 
payments  in  specie.  I  shall  be  glad  if  this  in- 
stitution find  it  prudent  and  proper  to  hold  out; 
but  as  it  owes  no  more  duty  to  the  government 
than  any  other  bank,  and,  of  course,  much  less 
than  the  deposit  bauKS,  I  cannot  see  any  ground 
for  demanding  from  it  efforts  and  sacrifices  to 
favor  the  government,  which  those  holding  the 
public  money,  and  owing  duty  to  the  govern- 
ment, are  unwilling  or  unable  to  make ;  nor  do 
I  see  how  the  New  England  biuiks  can  stand 
alone  in  the  general  crush." 

The  suspension  was  now  complete ;  and  it  was 
evident,  and  as  good  as  admitted  by  those  who 
had  made  it,  that  it  was  the  effect  of  contrivance 
on  the  part  of  politicians,  and  the  so-called 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of 
restoring  themselves  to  power.  The  whole 
process  was  now  clear  to  the  vision  of  those 
who  could  see  nothing  while  it  was  going  on. 
Even  those  of  the  democratic  party  whose  votes 
had  helped  to  do  the  mischief  could  now  see 


that  the  attempt  to  deposit  forty  millions  with 
the  States  was  destruction  to  the  deposit  banks ; 
— ^that  the  repeal  of  the  specie  circular  was  to 
fill  the  treasury  with  paper  money,  to  be  found 
useless  when  wanted ; — that  distress  was  pur- 
posely created  in  order  to  throw  the  blame  of  it 
upon  the  party  in  power ; — that  the  promptitude 
with  which  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  had 
been  brought  forward  as  a  remedy  for  the  distress, 
showed  that  it  had  been  held  in  reserve  for  that 
purpose ; — and  the  delight  with  which  the  whig 
party  saluted  the  general  calamity,  showed  that 
they  considered  it  their  own  passport  to  power. 
All  this  became  visible,  after  the  mischief  was 
over,  to  those  who  could  see  nothing  of  it  before 
it  was  done. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

TBANSMIOBATION  OF  THE  BANK  OF  THB  X7NI- 
TED  STATES  FBOM  A  FEDEBAL  TO  A  STATE  IN- 
STITUTION. 

This  institution  having  again  appeared  on  the 
public  theatre,  politicaily  and  financially,  and 
with  power  to  infiuenoe  national  legislation,  and 
to  control  moneyed  corporations,  and  with  art 
and  skill  enough  to  deceive  astute  merdiants 
and  trained  politicians, — (for  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  such  men  would  have  committed 
themselves  in  her  &vor  if  they  had  known  her 
condition,) — it  becomes  necessary  to  trace  her 
history  since  the  expiration  of  her  charter,  and 
learn  by  what  means  she  continued  an  exist- 
ence, apparently  without  change,  after  having 
imdergone  the  process  which,  in  law  and  in 
reason,  is  the  death  of  a  corporation.  It  is  a 
marvellous  history,  opening  a  new  chapter  in 
the  necrology  of  corporations,  very  curious  to 
study,  and  involving  in  its  solution,  besides  the 
biological  mystery,  the  exposure  of  a  legal 
fraud  and  juggle,  a  legislative  smuggle,  and  a 
corrupt  enactment.  The  charter  of  the  corpo- 
ration had  expired  upon  its  own  limitation  in 
the  year  1836 :  it  was  entitled  to  two  years  to 
wind  up  its  affidrs,  engaging  in  no  new  busi- 
ness :  but  was  seen  to  go  on  after  the  expira- 
tion, as  if  still  in  full  life,  and  without  the 
change  of  an  attribute  or  feature.  The  expla- 
nation is  this : 
On  the  19th  day  of  January,  in  the  year 


24 


THIRTY  TEABS'  VIEW. 


1836,  a  bill  was  reported  in  the  House  of  Rep> 
resentatives  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Penn- 
sjlyania^  entitled,  "iln  act  to  repeal  tke  State 
taxj  and  to  continue  the  improvement  of  the 
Stale  by  railroads  and  canals;  and  for  other 
purposes?^  It  came  from  the  standing  com- 
mittee on  *^  Inland  navigation  and  internal 
improvement ;"  and  was,  in  &ct,  a  bill  to  re- 
peal a  tax  and  make  roads  and  canals,  but 
which,  under  the  vague  and  usually  unimpor- 
tant generality  of  "  other  purposes^^  contained 
the  entire  draught  df  a  charter  for  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States — adopting  it  as  a  Pennsylvania 
State  bank.  The  introduction  of  the  bill,  with 
this  addendum,  colossal  tail  to  it,  wa6  a  surprise 
upon  the  House.  No  petition  had  asked  for  such 
a  bank :  no  motion  had  been  made  in  relation  to 
it :  no  inquiry  had  been  sent  to  any  committee : 
no  notice  of  any  kind  had  heralded  its  approach: 
no  resolve  authorized  its  report :  the  unimpor- 
tant clause  of  "■  other  purposes^^'*  hung  on  at  the 
end  of  the  title,  could  excite  no  suspicion  of  the 
enormous  measures  which  lurked  under  its  un- 
pretentious phraseology.  Its  advent  was  an 
apparition:  its  entrance  an  intrusion.  Some 
members  looked  at  each  other  in  amazement 
But  it  was  soon  evident  that  it  was  the  minora 
ity  only  that  was  piystified— that  a  majority 
of  the  elected  members  in  the  House,  and  a 
duster  of  exotics  in  the  lobbies,  perfectly  un- 
derstood the  intrusive  movement : — in  brief,  it 
had  been  smuggled  into  the  House,  and  a  power 
was  present  to  protect  it  there.  This  was  the 
first  intimation  that  had  reached  the  General 
Assembly,  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  or  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  that  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was  transmigrating !  chang- 
ing itself  from  a  national  to  a  local  institution — 
from  a  federal  to  a  State  charter— from  ah  im- 
perial to  a  provincial  institution — ^retaining  all 
the  while  its  body  and  essence,  its  nature  and 
attributes,  its  name  and  local  habitation.  It 
WIS  a  new  species  of  metempsychosis,  hereto- 
fore confined  to  souls  separated  from  bodies, 
but  now  appearing  in  a  body  that  never  had  a 
soul :  for  that,  according  to  Sir  Edward  Coke, 
is  the  psychological  condition  of  a  corporation — 
and,  above  all,  of  a  moneyed  corporation. 

The  mystified  members  demanded  explana- 
tions ;  and  it  was  a  case  in  which  explanations 
could  not  be  denied.  Mr.  Biddle,  in  a  public 
letter  to  an  eminent  citizen,  on  whose  name  he 


had  been  accustomed  to  hang  such  prodnctions, 
(Mr.  John  Qumcy  Adams,)  attributed  the  pro- 
cedure, so  &r  as  he  had  moved  in  it,  to  a 
^^ formal  application  on  the  part  of  the  legis- 
lature to  know  from  him  on  what  terms  the 
expiring  hank  would  receive  a  charter  from 
it  ;^^  and  gave  up  the  names  of  two  members 
who  had  conveyed  the  application.  The  legis- 
lature had  no  knowledge  of  the  proceeding. 
The  two  members  whose  names  had  been 
vouched  disavowed' the  legislative  application, 
but  admitted  that,  in  compliance  with  sugges- 
tions, they  had  written  a  letter  to  Mr.  Biddle  in 
their  own  names,  making  the  inquiry ;  but  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  legislature,  or  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  committees  of  which  they  were 
members.  They  did  not  explain  the  reason 
which  induced  them  to  take  the  initiative  in  so 
important  business;  and  the  belief  took  root 
that  their  good  nature  had  yielded  to  an  impor- 
tunity from  an  invisible  source,  and  that  they 
had  consented  to  give  a  private  and  bungling 
commencement  to  what  must  have  a  beginning, 
and  which  could  not  find  it  in  any  open  or  par- 
liamentary form.  It  was  truly  a  case  in  which 
the  first  step  cost  the  difficulty.  How  to  begin 
was  the  puzzle,  and  so  to  begin  as  to  conceal 
the  beginning,  was  the  desideratum.  The  finger 
of  the  bank  must  not  be  seen  in  it,  yet,  without 
the  touch  of  that  finger,  the  movement  could 
not  begin.  Without  something  from  the  Bank 
— without  some  request  or  application  from  it, 
it  would  have  been  gratuitous  and  impertinent, 
and  might  have  been  insulting  and  ofiensive,  to 
have  offered  it  a  State  charter.  To  apply 
openly  for  a  charter  was  to  incur  a  publicity 
which  would  be  the  defeat  of  the  whole  move- 
ment The  answer  of  Mr.  Biddle  to  the  two 
members,  dexterously  treating  their  private  let- 
ter, obtuned  by  solicitation,  as  a  formal  legis- 
lative application,  surmounted  the  difficulty! 
and  got  the  Bank  before  the  legislature,  where 
there  were  firiends  enough  secretly  prepared  for 
the  purpose  to  pass  it  through.  The  terms  had 
been  arranged  with  Mr.  Biddle  beforehand,  so 
that  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  vote. 
The  principal  item  in  these  terms  was  the  stip- 
ulation to  pay  the  State  the  sum  of  $1,300,000, 
to  be  expended  in  works  of  internal  improve- 
ments; and  it  was  upon  this  slender  connection 
with  the  subject  that  the  whole  charter  referred 
itself  to  the  committee  of  ^*  Inland  navigation 


ANNO  ISSt.    MABTIN  YAK  BUBEK,  PRESIDENT. 


25 


and  internal  improvement;^^ — ^to  take  its  place 
w  a  proTiso  to  a  bill  entitled,  "  7b  repeal  the 
State  tax,  and  to  amtinue  the  improvements 
rfthe  State  by  railtoads  and  canals  ;^^ — and 
to  be  no  further  indicated  in  the  title  to  that 
act  than  what  could  be  found  under  the  adden- 
dum of  that  yague  and  flexible  generality, 
"  other  purposes  /'  usuallj  added  to  point  atten- 
tion to  sometlni^  not  worth  a  specification. 

Haying  mastered  the  first  step — ^the  one  of 
greatest  difficulty,  if  there  is  truth  in  the  proy- 
erb) — ^the  remainder  of  the  proceeding  was  easy 
and  rapid,  the  billj  with  its  proyiso,  being  re- 
ported, read  a  first,  second,  and  third  time, 
passed  the  House— «ent  to  the  Senate ;  read  a 
first,  second,  and  third  time  there,  and  passed — 
sent  to  the  Goyemor  and  approyed,  and  made 
a  law  of  the  land :  and  all  in  as  little  time  as  it 
usually  requires  to  make  an  act  for  changing 
the  name  of  a  man  or  a  county.  To  add  to  its 
titles  to  infamy,  the  repeal  of  the  State  tax 
which  it  assumed  to  make,  took  the  ur  of  a 
bamboozle,  the  tax  being  a  temporary  imposi- 
tion, and  to  expire  within  a  few  days  upon  its 
own  limitation.  The  distribution  of  the  bonus 
took  the  aspect  of  a  bribe  to  the  people,  being 
piddled  out  in  driblets  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
counties:  and,  to  stain  the  bill  with  the  last 
suspicion,  a  strong  lobby  force  fit>m  Philadel- 
phia hung  oyer  its  progress,  and  cheered  it  along 
with  the  affection  and  solicitude  of  parents  for 
their  offspring.  Eyery  drcumstanoe  of  its 
enactment  announced  corruption — ^bribery  in 
the  members  who  passed  the  act,  and  an  at- 
tempt to  bribe  the  people  by  distributing  the 
bonus  among  them :  and  the  outburst  of  indig- 
nation throughout  the  State  was  yehement  and 
uniyersaL  People  met  in  masses  to  condemn 
the  act,  demand  its  repeal,  to  denounce  the 
members  who  yoted  for  it,  and  to  call  for  inyes- 
tigation  into  the  manner  in  which  it  passed. 
Of  course,  the  legislature  which  passed  it  was 
In  no  haste  to  respond  to  these  demands ;  but 
their  successors  were  different  An  election 
interyened;  great  changes  of  members  took 
place ;  two-thirds  of  the  new  legislature  de- 
manded inyestigation,  and  resolyed  to  haye  it. 
A  committee  was  appointed,  with  the  usual 
ample  powers,  and  sat  the  usual  length  of  time, 
and  worked  with  the  usual  inde&tigability,  and 
made  the  usual  yoluminous  report;  and  with 
the  usual  "  lame  and  impotent  conclusion.''   A 


mass  of  pregnant  circumstances  were  collected, 
coyering  the  whole  case  with  black  suspicion : 
but  direct  bribery  was  proyed  upon  no  one. 
Probably,  the  case  of  the  Yazoo  fraud  is  to  be 
the  last,  as  it  was  the  first,  in  which  a  succeed- 
ing general  assembly  has  fully  and  unqualifiedly 
condemned  its  predecessor  for  corruption. 

The  charter  thus  obtained  was  accepted: 
and,  without  the  change  of  form  or  substance 
in  any  particular,  the  old  bank  moyed  on  as  if 
nothing  had  happened — as  if  the  Congress  char- 
ter was  still  in  force — as  if  a  corporate  institu- 
tion and  all  its  affairs  could  be  shifted  by  stat- 
ute from  one  foundation  to  another; — as  if  a 
transmigration  of  corporate  existence  could  be 
operated  by  l^islatiye  enactment,  and  the  debt- 
ors, creditors,  depositors,  and  stockholders  in 
one  bank  changed,  transformed,  and  constituted 
into  debtors,  creditors,  depositors  and  stock- 
holders in  another.  The  illegality  of  the  whole 
proceeding  was  as  flagrant  as  it  was  corrupt — 
as  scandalous  as  it  was  notorious — and  could 
only  find  its  motiye  in  the  consciousness  of  a 
condition  in  which  detection  adds  infiuny  to 
ruin ;  and  in  which  no  infamy,  to  be  incurred, 
can  exceed  that  from  which  escape  is  sought. 
And  yet  it  was  this  broken  and  rotten  institu- 
tion— ^this  criminal  committing  crimes  to  escape 
(torn  the  detection  of  crimes — ^this  ^counter- 
feit presentment"  of  a  defunct  corporation — ^this 
addendum  to  a  Pennsylyania  railroad — this 
whited  sepulchre  filled  with  dead  men's  bones, 
thus  bribed  and  smuggled  through  a  local  legis- 
lature— that  was  still  able  to  set  up  for  a  pow^ 
and  a  benefiustor !  still  able  to  influence  federal 
legislation— control  other  banks— deceive  mer- 
chants and  statesmen — excite  a  popular  current 
in  its  fayor — assume  a  guardianship  oyer  the 
public  affairs,  and  actually  dominate  for  months 
longer  in  the  legislation  and  the  business  of  the 
country.  It  is  for  the  part  she  acted — the 
dominating  part — in  contriying  the  financial 
distress  and  the  general  suspension  of  the 
banks  in  1837— the  last  one  which  has  afOicted 
our  country, — ^that  renders  necessary  and  pro- 
per this  notice  of  her  corrupt  transit  through 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 


26 


THmiT  YEABS'  VIEW. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  BUBFENBION:  GENERAL  DE- 
BANOEMKNT  OF  BUSINESS:  SUPPRESSION  AND 
RIDICULE  OF  THE  SPECIE  CURRENCY:  BUB- 
MISSION  OF  THE  PEOPLE:  CALL  OF  CONGRESS. 

A  GREAT  distnrbanoe  of  course  took  place  in 
the  business  of  the  country,  from  the  stoppage 
of  the  banks.  Their  agreement  to  receive  each 
others'  notes  made  these  notes  the  sole  currency 
of  the  oountry.  It  was  a  miserable  substitute 
for  gold  and  silver,  fidling  far  below  these 
metals  when  measured  against  them,  and  very 
unequal  to  each  other  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  Those  of  the  interior,  and  of  the 
west,  being  unfit  for  payments  in  the  great 
commercial  Atlantic  cities,  were  &r  below  the 
standard  of  the  notes  of  those  cities,  and  suf- 
fered a  heavy  loss  from  difference  of  exchange, 
as  it  was  called  (although  it  was  only  the  differ- 
ence of  depreciation,}  in  all  remittances  to  those 
cities: — ^to  which  points  the  great  payments 
tended.  All  this  difference  was  considered  a 
loss,  and  charged  upon  the  mismanagement  of 
the  public  affairs  by  the  administration,  although 
the  clear  effect  of  geographical  position.  Specie 
disappeared  as  a  currency,  being  systematically 
suppressed.  It  became  an  article  of  merchan- 
dise, bought  and  sold  like  any  other  marketable 
commodity ;  and  especially  bought  in  quantities 
for  exportation.  Even  metallic  change  disap- 
peared, down  to  the  lowest  subdivision  of  the 
dollar.  Its  place  was  supplied  by  every  con- 
ceivable variety  of  individual  and  corporation 
tickets — tissued  by  some  from  a  feeling  of  neces- 
sity ;  by  others,  as  a  means  of  small  gains ;  by 
many,  politically,  as  a  means  of  exciting  odium 
against  the  administration  for  having  destroyed 
the  currency.  Fictitious  and  burlesque  notes 
were  issued  with  caricatures  and  grotesque  pic- 
tures and  devices,  and  reproachful  sentences, 
entitled  ihe  *^ better  currenq/:"  and  exhibited 
every  where  to  excite  contempt  They  were 
sent  in  derision  to  all  the  friends  of  the  specie 
drcular,  especially  to  him  who  had  the  credit 
(not  untruly)  of  having  been  its  prime  mover — 
most  of  them  plentifully  sprinkled  over  with 
taunting  expressions  to  give  them  a  personal 
application :  such  as — "  This  is  what  you  have 
brought  the  country  to :"  ^  the  end  of  the  ex- 


periment : "  "  the  gold  humbug  exploded :"  *'  is 
this  what  was  promised  us  ?  "  "behold  the  ef- 
fects of  tampering  with  the  currency."  The 
presidential  mansion  was  infested,  and  almost 
polluted  with  these  missives,  usuidly  made  the 
cover  of  some  vulgar  taunt.  Even  gold  and 
silver  could  not  escape  the  attempted  degrmda- 
tion— copper,  brass,  tin,  iron  pieces  bemg  stmck 
in  imitation  of  gold  and  silver  coins — ^made  ridi- 
culous by  figures  and  devices,  usually  the  whole 
hog,  and  inscribed  with  taunting  and  reproach- 
ful expressions.  Immense  sums  were  expended 
in  these  derisory  manufafctures,  extensively 
carried  on,  and  universally  distributed ;  and  re- 
duced to  a  system  as  a  branch  of  party  warfare^ 
and  intended  to  act  on  the  thonghtlesB  and 
ignorant  through  appeals  to  their  eyes  and 
passions.  Nor  were  such  means  alone  resorted 
to  to  infiame  the  multitude  against  the  adminis- 
tration. The  opposition  press  teemed  with  in- 
flammatory publications.  The  President  and  his 
friends  were  held  up  as  great  state  criminals, 
ruthlessly  destroying  the  property  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  meriting  punishment— even  death* 
Nor  did  these  publications  appear  in  thought- 
less or  obscure  papers  only,  but  in  some  of  the 
most  weighty  and  influential  of  the  bank  party. 
Take,  for  example,  this  paragraph  from  a  lead- 
ing paper  in  the  city  of  New  York : 

"  We  would  put  it  directly  to  each  and  all  of 
our  readers,  whether  it  becomes  this  great  peo- 
ple, quietly  and  tamely  to  submit  to  any  and 
every  degree  of  lawless  oppression  which  their 
rulers  may  inflict,  merely  because  resistance 
may  involve  us  in  trouble  and  expose  those  who 
resist,  to  censure  ?  We  are  very  certain  their 
reply  will  be, '  Ab,  but  at  what  point  is  ^'  resistr 
ance  to  commence  ?" — is  not  the  evil  of  resistr- 
ance  greater  ^^  than  the  evil  of  submission  ?" ' 
We  answer  promptly,  that  resistance  on  the 
part  of  a  free  people,  if  they  would  preserve 
their  freedom,  should  always  conmience  when- 
ever it  is  made  plain  and  palpable  that  there 
has  been  a  deliberate  violation  of  their  rights  ; 
and  whatever  temporary  evils  may  result  from 
such  resistance,  it  can  never  be  so  great  or  so 
dangerous  to  our  institutions,  as  a  blind  sub- 
mission to  a  most  manifest  act  of  oppression 
and  tyranny.  And  now,  we  would  ask  of  all — 
what  shadow  of  right,  what  plea  of  expe- 
diency, what  constitutional  or  legal  justification 
can  Martin  Van  Buren  offer  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  for  having  brought  upon  them 
all  their  present  difficulties  by  a  continuance  of 
the  specie  circular^  after  two-thirds  of  their 
representatives  had  declared  their  solemn  con- 
victions that  it  was  injurious  to  the  country 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PBESIDENT. 


27 


And  should  be  repealed  1  Most  assuredly,  none, 
and  we  unhesitatingly  say,  that  it  is  a  more 
high-handed  measure  of  tyranny  than  that 
which  cost  Charles  the  1st  his  crown  and  his 
head — ^more  ille^l  and  unconstitutional  than 
the  act  of  the  British  ministry  which  caused  the 
patriots  of  the  reyolution  to  destroy  the  tea  in 
the  hu*bor  of  Boston — ^and  one  which  calls  more 
loudly  for  resistance  than  any  act  of  Great 
Britain  which  led  to  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence," 

Taken  by  surprise  in  the  deprivation  of  its 
revenues, — specie  denied  it  by  the  banks  which 
held  its  gold  and  silver, — ^the  federal  government 
could  only  do  as  others  did,  and  pay  out  de- 
preciated paper.    Had  the  event  been  foreseen 
by  the  government,  it  might  have  been  provided 
against,  and  much  specie  saved.  It  was  now  too 
late  to  enter  into  a  contest  with  the  banks,  they 
in  possession  of  the  money,  and  the  suspension 
organized  and  established  They  would  only  ren- 
der their  own  notes :  the  government  could  only 
pay  in  that  which  it  received.  Depreciated  paper 
was  their  only  medium  of  payment ;  and  every 
such  payment  (only  received  from  a  feeling  of 
duresse)  brought  resentment,  reproach,  indigna- 
tion, loss  of  popularity  to  the  administration ; 
and  loud  calls  for  the  re-establishment  of  the 
National  Bank,  whose  notes  had  always  been 
equal  to  specie,  and  were  then  contrived  to  be 
kept  far  above  the  level  of  those  of  other  sus- 
pended banks.     Thus  the  administration  found 
itself^  in  the  second  month  of  its  existence, 
struggling  with  that  most  critical  of  all  govern- 
ment embarrassments — deranged  finances,  and 
depreciated  currency ;  and  its  funds  dropping 
off  every  day.    Defections  were  incessant,  and 
by  masses,  and  sometimes  by  whole  States :  and 
all  on  account  of  these  vile  payments  in  de- 
preciated paper.    Take  a  single  example.    The 
State  of  Tennessee  had  sent  numerous  volunteers 
to  the  Florida  Indian  vnir.    There  were  several 
thousands  of  them,  and  came  from  thirty  differ- 
ent coimties,  requiring  payments  to  be  made 
through  a  large  part  of  the  State,  and  to  some 
member  of  almost  every  family  in  it.    The  pay- 
master, CoL  Adam  Duncan  Steuart,  had  treas- 
ury drafts  on  the  Nashville  deposit  banks  for 
the  money  to  make  the  payments.    They  de- 
livered their  own  notes,  and  these  far  below  par 
— even  twenty  per  cent  below  those  of  the  so- 
called  Bank  of  the  United  States,  which  the 
policy  of  the  suspension  required  to  be  kept  in 


strong  contrast  with  those  of  the  government  de- 
posit banks.    The  loss  on  each  payment  was 
gi«at — one  dollar  in  every  five.  Even  patriotism 
could  not  stand  it.  The  deposit  banks  and  their 
notes  were  execrated :  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  and  its  notes  were  called  for.  It  was  the 
children  of  Israel  wailing  for  ,the  fieshpots  of 
Egypt      Discontent,  from  individual  became 
general,  extending  from  persons  to  masses.  The 
State  took  the  infection.    From  being  one  of 
the  firmest  and  foremost  of  the  democratic 
States,  Tennessee  fell  off  iVom  her  party,  and 
went  into  opposition.    At  the  next  election  she 
showed  a  majority  of  20,000  against  her  old 
friends;  and  that  in  the   lifetime  of  General 
Jackson ;  and  contrary  to  what  it  would  have 
been  if  his  foresight  had  been  seconded.    He 
foresaw  the  consequences  of  paying  out  this 
depreciated  paper.      The  paymaster  had  fore- 
seen them,  and  before  drawing  a  dollar  from  the 
banks  he  went  to  General  Jackson  for  his  advice. 
This  energetic  man,  then  aged,  and  dying,  and 
retired  to  his  beloved  hermitage, — but  all  head 
and  nerve  to  the  last,  and  scorning  to  see  the 
government   capitulate  to  insurgent  banks, — 
acted  up  to  his  character.    He  advised  the  pay- 
master to  proceed  to  Washington  and  ask  for 
solid  money — for  the  gold  and  silver  which  was 
then  lying  in  the  western  land  offices.  He  went ; 
but  being  a  military  subordinate,  he  only  ap- 
plied   according   to  the   rules   of  subordina- 
tion,  through  the   channels  of  official  inter- 
course :  and  was  denied  the  hard  money,  wanted 
for  payments  on  debenture  bonds  and  officers 
of  the  government     He  did  not  go  to  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  as  General  Jackson  intended  he  should 
do.    He  did  not  feel  himself  authorized  to  go 
beyond  official  routine.    It  was  in  the  recess  of 
Congress,  and  I  was  not  in  Washington  to  go  to 
the  President  in  his  place  (as  I  should  instantiy 
have  done) ;  and,  returning  without  the  desired 
orders,  the  payments  were  made,  through  a  storm 
of  imprecations,  in  this  loathsome  trash :  and 
Tennessee  was  lost    And  so  it  was,  in  more  or 
less  degree,  throughout  the  Uniofn.    The  first 
object  of  the  suspension  had  been  accomplished 
— 9,  political  revolt  against  the  administration. 

Miserable  as  was  the  currency  which  the 
government  was  obliged  to  use,  it  was  yet  in 
the  still  more  miserable  condition  of  not  having 
enough  of  it !  The  deposits  with  the  States  had 
absorbed  two  sums  of  near  ten  millions  each : 


28 


THIBTT  TEABS'  VIEW. 


two  more  Buxxua  of  equal  amount  were  demand- 
able  in  the  course  of  the  jear.  Financial  em- 
barrassment, and  general  stagnation  of  busineas, 
diminished  the  current  receipts  from  lands  and 
customs :  an  absolute  deficit — that  horror,  and 
shame,  and  mortal  test  of  gOTemments — ^showed 
itself  ahead.  An  eztraordinaryr  session  of  Con- 
gress became  a  necessity,  inexorable  to  any  con- 
triyance  of  the  administration :  and,  on  the  15th 
day  of  May—just  fire  days  after  the  suspension 
in  the  principal  cities — the  proclamation  was 
issued  for  its  assembling:  to  take  place  on  the 
first  Monday  of  the  ensuing  September.  It  was 
a  mortifyiUg  concession  to  imperatire  circum- 
stances ;  and  the  more  so  as  it  had  just  been  re- 
fused to  the  grand  committee  of  Fifty — demand- 
ing it  in  the  imposing  name  of  that  great  meet- 
ing in  the  dty  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

XZTBA  SESSION:   MESSAGE,  AND  BEOOMMSNBA- 
TI0N8. 

The  first  session  of  the  twenty-fiflh  Congress, 
convened  upon  the  proclamation  of  the  Presi- 
dent, to  meet  an  extraordinary  occasion,  met  on 
the  first  Monday  in  September,  and  consisted 
of  the  following  members : 

SENATE. 

New  Hampshire  ~  Henry  Hubbard  and 
Franklin  Pierce. 

Maine — John  Ruggles  and  Ruel  Williams. 

Vermont — Samuel  Prentiss  and  Benjamin 
Swift. 

Massachusetts — Daniel  Webster  and  John 
Davis. 

Rhode  Island — ^Nehemiah  R.  Knight  and 
Asher  Robbins. 

Connecticut — John  M.  Niles  and  Perry 
Smith. 

New  ToRK--Sila8  Wright  and  Nathaniel  P. 
Tallmadge. 

New  Jersey — Garret  D.  Wall  and  Samuel 
L.  Southard. 

Delaware — ^Richard  H.  Bayard  and  Thomas 
Clayton. 

Pennstlyania— James  Buchanan  and  Sam- 
uel McKean. 

Maryland — Joseph  Kent  and  John  S. 
Spence. 

YiRoiNiA— William  C.  Rives  and  William 
H.  Roane. 


North  Carolina — Bedford  Brown  and  Rob- 
ert Strange. 

South  Carolina — John  C.  Calhoun  and 
Wm.  Campbell  Preston. 

Georgia — John  P.  King  and  Alfk^  Cuth- 
bert. 

Alabama— Wm.  Rufus  King  and  Clement  C. 
Clay. 

Mississippi — John  Black  and  Robert  J. 
Walker. 

Louisiana — ^Robert  C.  Nicholas  and  Alexan- 
der Mouton. 

Tennessee — Hugh  L.  White  and  Felix 
Grundy. 

Kentucky — ^Henry  Clay  and  John  Critten- 
den. 

Arkansas— Ambrose  H.  Sevier  and  William 
S.  Fulton. 

Missouri — Thomas  H.  Benton  and  Lewis  F. 

Illinois — Richard  M.  Young  and  John  M. 
Robinson. 
Indiana — Oliver  H.  Smith  and  John  Tipton. 
Ohio — ^William  Allen  and  Thomas  Moms. 
Michigan — Lucius  Lyon  and  John  Norvell. 

HOUSE    OF    BEPSESENTATIYES. 

Maine — George  Evans,  John  Fairfield,  Tim- 
othy J.  Carter,  F.  0.  J.  Smith,  Thomas  Davee, 
Jonathan  Cilley,  Joseph  C.  Noyes,  Hugh  J. 
Anderson. 

New  Hampshire — Samuel  Cushman,  James 
FarringtoiLCharles  G.  Atherton,  Joseph  Weeks, 
Jared  W.  Williams. 

Massachusetts — Richard  Fletcher,  Stephen 
C.  Phillip^  Caleb  Cushing,  Wm.  Parmenter, 
Levi  Lincoln,  George  Grinnell,  jr.,  George  N. 
Briggs,  Wm.  B.  Calhoun,  Nathaniel  B.  Borden, 
John  Q.  Adams,  John  Reed,  Abbott  Lawrence, 
Wm.  S.  Hastings. 

Rhode  IsLAND^Robert  B.  Cranston,  Joseph 
L.  Tillinghast 

Connecticut — ^Isaac  Toucey,  Samuel  Ing- 
ham, Elisha  Haley,  Thomas  T.  Whittlesey, 
Launcelot  Phelps,  Orrin  Holt. 

Vermont— Hiiand  Hall,  William  Slade,  He- 
man  Allen,  Isaac  Fletchers  Horace  Everett. 

New  York — ^Thomas  B.  Jackson.  Abraham 
Vanderveer,  C.  C.  Cambreleng,  Ely  Moore, 
Edward  Curtis,  Ogden  Hofiinan,  Gouvemeur 
Kemble,  Obadiah  Titus,  Nathaniel  Jones,  John 
C.  Broadhead,  Zadoc  Pratt,  Robert  McClel- 
lancL  Henry  Vail,  Albert  Gallup,  John  I. 
DeGrafi^  David  Russell,  John  Palmer,  James 
B.  Spencer,  John  Edwards,  Arphaxad  Loomis, 
Heniy  A.  Foster,  Abraham  P.  Grant,  Isaac  H. 
Bronson,  John  U.  Prentiss,  Amasa  J.  Parker, 
John  C.  Clark,  Andrew  D.  W.  Bruyn,  Hiram 
Gray,  William  Taylor.  Bennett  BicknelL  WU- 
liam  H.  Noble,  Samuel  Birdsall,  Mark  H.  Sib- 
ley, John  T.  Andrews,  Timothy  Childs,  Wil- 
liam Patterson,  Luther  C.  Peck,  Richard  P. 
Marvin,  Millard  Filhnore.  Charles  F.  Mitchell 
New  Jersey — John  B.  Aycrigg,  John  P.  B. 


Ajsisu  1897.    juaktun  \ ajS  BUREN,  PRESIDE19T. 


29 


Mftzwell,  William  Halstead,  Jos.  F.  Randolph, 
Charles  G.  StrattoiL  Thomas  Jones  Yorke. 

Pennsylvania — ^Lemuel  Paynter,  John  Ser- 
geant, George  W.  Toland,  Charles  Na;^lor,  Ed- 
ward Davies,  David  Potts,  Edward  Darlington, 
Jacob  Fry,  jr.,  Matthias  Morris,  David  D.  Wag- 
ener,  Edwturd  B.  Hubley,  Henir  A.  Muhlen- 
berg, Lnther  Reilly,  Henry  Logan,  Daniel 
Sheffer,  Chas.  McClnre,  Wm.  W.  Potter,  David 
Petriken,  Robert  H.  Hammond,  Samuel  W. 
Morris,  Charles  Ogle,  John  Elingensmith,  An- 
drew Buchanan,  T.  M.  T.  McKennan,  Richard 
Biddle,  William  Beatty,  Thomas  Henry,  Arnold 
Plnmer. 

Delawaki:— John  J.  Milligan. 

Makyland — John  Dennis,  James  A.  Pearoe, 
J.  T.  H.  Worthington,  Benjamin  C.  Howard, 
Isaac  McKim^  William  Cost  Johnson,  Francis 
Thomas,  Daniel  Jenifer. 

Virginia — Henry  A.  Wise,  Francis  Mallory, 
John  Robertson,  Charles  F.  Mercer,  John  Talia- 
ferrOj  R.  T.  M.  Hunter,  James  Garland,  Francis 

E.  Rives,  Walter  Coles,  Geom  C.  Dromgoole, 
James  W.  Bouldin,  John  M.  Fatton,  James  M. 
Mason,  Isaac  S.  Pennybacker,  Andi^w  Beime, 
Archibald  Stuart,  John  W.  Jones,  Robert 
Craig,  Geo.  W.  Hopkins,  Joseph  Johnson,  Wm. 
6.  Morgan. 

North  Carolina — Jesse  A. BynunLEdward 
D.  Stanley,  Charles  Shepard,  Micaiah  T.  Haw- 
kins, James  McKay,  Edmund  Deberry,  Abra- 
ham Rencher,  William  Montgomery,  Augustine 
H.  Shepherd,  James  Graham,  Henry  Connor, 
Lewis  Williams,  Samuel  T.  Sa^^er. 

South  Carolina — H.  S.  Legare,  Waddy 
Thompson,  Francis  W.  Pickens.  W.  K.  Clowney, 

F.  H.  Elmore,  John  K.  Griffin,  R.  B.  Smith, 
John  Campbell  John  P.  Richardson. 

Georgia — ^Tnomas  Glascock,  S.  F.  Cleveland, 
Seaton  Grantland,  Charles  £.  Haynes,  Hopkins 
Holsey,  Jabez  Jackson.  Geo.  W.  Owens,  Geo. 
W.  B,  Townes,  W.  C.  Dawson. 

Tennessee — ^Wm.  B.  Carter,  A.  A.  McClel- 
land, Joseph  Williams,  (one  vacancy,)  H.  L. 
Tumey,  Wm.  B.  Campbell^  John  Bell,  Abraham 
P.  Mauiy,  James  E.  PoU^Ebenezer  J.  Shields, 
Richard  Cheatham,  John  W.  Crockett^  Christo- 
pher H.  Williams. 

Kentucky — John  L.  Murray,  Edward  Rum- 
aey,  Sherrod  Williams,  Joseph  K  Underwood, 
Jatnes  HarlaiL  John  Calhoun,  John  Pope,  Wm. 
J.  Graves,  John  White,  Richard  Hawes,  Rich- 
ard H.  Menifee,  John  Chambers,  Wm.  W. 
Sonthgate. 

Ohio-— Alexander  Duncan,  Taylor  Webster, 
Patrick  G.  Goode,  Thomas  Corwin,  Thomas  L. 
Hamer,  Calvary  Morris,  Wm.  K.  Bond,  J. 
Bidgeway,  John  Chaney,  Samson  Mason^  J. 
Alexander,  ji\,  Alexander  Harper,  D.  P.  Lead- 
better,  Wm.  H.  Hunter,  John  W.  Allen,  Elish|i 
Whittleserv,  A.  W.  Loomis,  Matthias  Shepler, 
Daniel  Kiigore. 

Alabama — Francis  S.  Lyon,  Dixon  H.  Lewis, 
Joab  lAwler,  Reuben  Chapnum,  J.  L.  MartixL 


Indiana — Ratliff  Boon,  John  Ewing,  William 
Graham,  Georee  H.  Dunn,  James  Rariden,  Wil- 
liam Herrod,  Albert  S.  White. 

Illinois — A.  W.  Snyder,  Zadoc  Casey,  Wm. 
L.  May. 

Louisiana — ^Henry  Johnson,  Eleazer  W.  Rip- 
ley, Rice  Garland. 

Mississippi — John  F.  H.  Claiborne,  S.  H. 
Gholson. 

Arkansas — ^Archibald  Yell. 

Missouri — Albert  G.  Harrison,  John  Miller. 

Michigan — Isaac  E.  Crary. 

Florida — Charles  Downing. 

Wisconsin — George  W.  Jones. 

In  these  ample  lists,  both  of  the  Senate  and 
of  the  House,  will  be  discovered  a  succession  of 
eminent  names — ^many  which  had  then  achieved 
eminence,  others  to  achieve  it: — ^and,  besides 
those  which  captivate  r^ard  by  splendid  abil- 
ity, a  still  larger  number  of  those  less  brilliant^ 
equally  respectable,  and  often  more  useful 
members,  whose  business  talent  performs  the 
work  of  the  body,  and  who  in  England  are  well 
called,  the  woriung  members.  Of  these  numei^ 
oos  members,  as  well  the  brilliant  as  the  useful, 
it  would  be  invidious  to  particularize  part  with- 
out enumerating  the  whole;  and  that  would 
require  a  reproduction  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
list  of  each  House.  Four  only  can  be  named, 
and  they  entitled  to  that  distinction  from  the 
station  attained,  or  to  be  attained  by  them: 
— ^Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had  been  pres- 
ident; Messrs.  James  K.  Polk,  Millard  FiU- 
more  and  Franklin  Pierce,  who  became  presi- 
dents. In  my  long  service  I  have  not  seen  a 
more  able  Congress ;  and  it  is  only  necessary  to 
read  over  the  names^  and  to  possess  some 
knowledge  of  our  public  men,  to  be  struck  with 
the  number  of  names  which  would  come  under 
the  description  of  useful  or  brilliant  members. 

The  election  of  speaker  was  the  first  business 
of  the  House ;  and  Mr.  James  K.  Polk  and  Mr. 
John  Bell,  both  of  Tennessee,  being  put  in 
nomination,  Mr.  Polk  received  116  votes ;  and 
was  elected— Mr.  Bell  receiving  103.  Mr.  Wal- 
ter S.  Franklin  was  elected  derk. 

The  message  was  delivered  upon  receiving 
notice  of  the  organization  of  the  two  Houses ; 
and,  with  temperance  and  firmness,  jt  met  all 
the  exigencies  of  the  occasion.  That  specie  order 
which  had  been  the  subject  of  so  much  denun- 
ciation,— ^the  imputed  cause  of  the  suspension, 
and  the  revocation  of  which  was  demanded  with 
so  much  pertinacity  and  such  imposing  demon- 


30 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


Btration, — ^far  from  being  given  up  was  com- 
mended for  the  good  effects  it  had  produced; 
and  the  determination  expressed  not  to  inter- 
fere with  its  operation.  In  relation  to  that 
decried  measure  the  message  said : 

^  Of  mj  own  duties  under  the  existing  laws, 
when  the  banks  suspended  specie  payments,  I 
could  not  doubt.  Directions  were  immediately 
given  to  prevent  the  reception  into  the  Treasury 
of  any  thing  but  gold  and  silver,  or  its  equivalent; 
and  every  practicable  arrangement  was  made  to 
preserve  the  public  fiiith,  by  similar  or  equivalent 
payments  to  the  public  creditors.  The  revenue 
mm  lands  had  been  for  some  time  substantially 
so  collected,  under  the  order  issued  by  the  direc- 
tions of  my  predecessor.  The  effects  of  that 
order  had  been  so  salutary,  and  its  forecast  in 
regard  to  the  increasing  insecurity  of  bank  paper 
had  become  so  apparent,  that,  even  before  the 
catastrophe,  I  had  resolved  not  to  interfere  with 
its  operation.  Congress  is  now  to  decide  whether 
the  revenue  shall  continue  to  be  so  collected,  or 
not" 

This  was  explicit^  and  showed  that  all  at- 
tempts to  operate  upon  the  President  at  that 
point,  and  to  coerce  the  revocation  of  a  meas- 
ure which  he  deemed  salutary,  had  totally  fiiiled. 
The  next  great  object  of  the  party  which  had 
contrived  the  suspension  and  organized  the  dis- 
tress, was  to  extort  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States ;  and  here  again  was 
an  equal  &ilure  to  operate  upon  the  firmness  of 
the  President.  He  reiterated  his  former  objec- 
tions to  such  an  institution — ^pot  merely  to  the 
particular  one  which  had  been  tried — ^but  to  any 
one  in  any  form,  and  declared  his  former  con- 
victions to  be  strengthened  by  recent  events. 
Thus: 

^  We  have  seen  for  nearly  half  a  century,  that 
those  who  advocate  a  national  bank,  by  what- 
ever motive  they  may  be  influenced,  constitute 
a  portion  of  our  community  too  numerous  to 
allow  us  to  hope  for  an  early  abandonment  of 
their  favorite  plan.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
must  indeed  form  an  erroneous  estimate  of  the 
intelligence  and  temper  of  the  American  people, 
who  suppose  that  they  have  continued,  on  slight 
or  insufficient  grounds,  their  persevering  opposi- 
tion to  such  an  institution ;  or  that  they  can  be 
induced  by  pecumary  pressure,  or  by  any  other 
combination  of  circumstances,  to  surrender  prin- 
ciples they  have  so  long  and  so  inflexibly  maintain- 
ed. My  own  views  of  the  subject  are  unchanged. 
They  have  been  repeatedly  and  unreservedly  an- 
nounced to  my  fellow-citizens,  who,  with  full 
knowledge  of  them,  conferred  upon  me  the  two 
*'  *   -*  offices  of  the  government    On  tiie  last 


of  these  occasions.  I  felt  it  due  to  the  people  to 
apprise  them  distinctly,  that,  in  the  event  of  my 
election,  I  would  not  be  able  to  co-operate  in 
the  re-establishment  of  a  national  bank.  To 
these  sentiments,  I  have  now  only  to  add  the 
expression  of  an  increased  conviction,  that  the 
re-establishment  of  such  a  bank,  in  any  form, 
whilst  it  would  not  accomplish  the  beneficial 
purpose  promised  by  its  advocates,  would 
impair  the  rightful  supremacy  of  the  popular 
will ;  injure  the  character  and  diminish  the  in- 
fluence of  our  political  system ;  and  bring  once 
more  into  existence  a  concentrated  moneyed 
power,  hostile  to  the  spirit^  and  threatening  the 
permanency,  of  our  repubhcan  institutions." 

Having  noticed  these  two  great  points  of  pres- 
sure upon  him,  and  thrown  them  off  with  equal 
strength  and  decorum,  he  went  forward  to  a 
new  point — the  connection  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment with  any  bank  of  issue  in  any  form,  either 
ae  a  depository  of  its  moneys,  or  in  the  use  of 
its  notes ; — and  recommended  a  total  and  per- 
petual dissolution  of  the  connection.  This  was 
a  new  point  of  policy,  long  meditated  by  some^ 
but  now  first  brought  forward  for  legislative 
action,  and  cogentiy  recommended  to  Congress 
for  its  adaption.  The  message,  referring  to  the 
recent  failure  of  the  banks,  took  advantage  of  it 
to  say: 

^'  Unforeseen  in  the  organization  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  forced  on  the  Treasury  by  early  ne- 
cessities, the  practice  of  employing  banks,  wa& 
in  truth,  from  the  beginning,  more  a  measure  of 
emergency  than  of  sound  policy.  When  we 
started  into  existence  as  a  nation,  in  addition  to 
the  burdens  of  the  new  government,  we  assumed 
all  the  large,  but  honorable  load,  of  debt  which 
was  the  price  of  our  liberty ;  but  we  hesitated 
to  weigh  down  the  infant  industry  of  the  coun- 
try by  resortiAg  to  adequate  taxation  for  the 
necessarv  revenue.  The  facilities  of  banks,  in 
return  for  the  privileges  they  acquired^  were 
promptly  offered,  and  perhaps  too  readily  re- 
ceived, oy  an  embarrassed  treasury.  During 
the  long  continuance  of  a  national  debt,  and  the 
intervening  difficulties  of  a  foreign  war,  the  con- 
nection was  continued  from  motives  of  conveni- 
ence ;  but  these  causes  have  long  since  passed 
away.  We  have  no  emergencies  t^t  make  banks 
necessary  to  aid  the  wants  of  the  Treasury ;  we 
have  no  load  of  national  debt  to  provide  for,  and 
we  have  on  actual  deposit  a  large  surplus.  No 
public  interest,  therefore,  now  requires  the 
renewal  of  a  connection  that  circumstances  have 
dissolved.  The  complete  organization  of  our 
government,  the  abundance  of  our  resources,  the 
seneral  harmony  which  prevails  between  the 
different  States,  and  with  foreign  powers,  all  en- 
able us  now  to  select  the  system  most  consistent 


ANNO  1837.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


31 


with  the  constitation,  md  most  condudTe  to  the 
pubUc  welBfcre." 

This  wise  reoommendation  laid  the  foondar 
tion  for  the  Independent  Treasniy — a  measure 
opposed  with  unwonted  violence  at  the  time, 
but  vindicated  as  well  by  experience  as  recom- 
mended by  wisdom ;  and  now  universally  concur- 
red in — constituting  an  era  in  our  financial  his- 
toxy,  and  reflecting  distinctive  credit  on  Mr.  Van 
Buren's  administration.  But  he  did  not  stop  at 
proposing  a  dissolution  of  governmental  con- 
nection with  these  institutions;  he  went  further, 
and  proposed  to  make  them  safer  for  the  com- 
munity, and  more  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the 
land.  These  institutions  exercised  the  privil^e 
of  stopping  payment,  qualified  by  the  gentle 
name  of  suspension,  when  they  judged  a  condi- 
tion of  the  country  existed  making  it  expedient 
to  do  so.  Three  of  these  general  suspensions 
had  taken  place  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
presenting  an  evil  entirely  ioo  large  for  the 
remedy  of  individual  suits  against  the  delinquent 
banks;  and  requiring  the  strong  arm  of  a  gen- 
eral and  authoritative  proceeding.  This  could 
only  be  found  in  subjecting  them  to  the  process 
of  bankruptcy ;  and  this  the  message  boldly  re- 
commended. It  was  the  first  recommendation 
of  the  kind,  and  deserves  to  be  commemorated 
for  its  novelty  and  boldness,  and  its  undoubted 
efficiency,  if  adopted.  This  is  the  recommenda- 
tion: 

"  In  the  mean  time,  it  is  our  duty  to  provide 
all  the  remedies  against  a  depreciated  paper 
currency  which  the  constitution  enables  us  to 
afford.  The  Treasury  Department,  on  several 
former  occasions,  has  suggested  the  propriety 
and  importance  of  a  uniform  law  concerning 
bankruptcies  of  corporations,  and  other  bankers. 
Through  the  instrumentality  of  such  a  law,  a 
saluta^  check  may  doubtless  be  imposed  on 
the  issues  of  paper  money,  and  an  effectual 
remedy  given  to  the  citizen,  in  a  way  at  once 
equal  in  ail  parts  of  the  Union,  and  fufiy  anthe- 
med by  the  constitution." 

A  bankrupt  law  for  banks!  That  was  the 
remedy.  Besides  its  efficacy  in  preventing  fu- 
ture suspensions,  it  would  be  a  remedy  for  the 
actual  one.  The  day  fixed  for  the  act  to  take 
effect  would  be  the  day  for  resuming  payments, 
or  going  into  liquidation.  It  would  be  the  day 
of  honesty  or  death  to  these  corporations;  and 
between  these  two  altematiYea  even  the  most 


refiractory  bank  would  choose  the  former,  if 
able  to  do  so. 

The  banks  of  the  District  of  Columbia^  and 
their  currency,  being  imder  the  jurisdiction  of 
Congress,  admitted  a  direct  remedy  in  its  own 
legislation,  both  fbr  the  fact  of  their  suspension 
and  the  evil  of  the  small  notes  which  they 
issued.  The  forfeiture  of  the  charter,  where  the 
resumption  did  not  take  place  in  a  limited  time, 
and  penalties  on  the  issue  of  the  small  notes, 
were  the  appropriate  remedies ; — and,  as  such, 
were  recommended  to  Congress. 

There  the  President  not  only  met  and  con- 
fronted the  evils  of  the  actual  suspension  as 
they  stood,  but  went  further,  and  provided 
against  the  recurrence  of  such  evils  thereafter, 
in  four  cardinal  recommendations :  1,  never  to 
have  another  national  bank ;  2;  never  to  receive 
bank  notes  again  in  payment  of  federal  dues ; 
3,  never  to  use  the  banks  again  for  depositories 
of  the  public  moneys ;  4,  to  apply  the  process 
of  bankruptcy  to  all  future  defaulting  banks. 
These  were  strong  recommendations,  all  founded 
in  a  sense  of  justice  to  the  public,  and  called  for 
by  the  supremacy  of  the  government^  if  it 
meant  to  maintain  its  supremacy ;  but  recom- 
mendations running  deep  into  the  pride  and  in- 
terests of  a  powerfol  class,  and  well  calculated 
to  inflame  still  higher  the  formidable  combina- 
tion already  arrayed  against  the  President,  and 
to  extend  it  to  all  that  should  support  him. 

The  immediate  cause  for  convoking  the  extra- 
ordinary session — the  approaching  deficit  in  the 
revenue — was  frankly  stated,  and  the  remedy 
as  frankly  proposed.  Six  millions  of  doUars 
was  the  estimated  amount;  and  to  provide  it 
neither  loans  nor  taxes  were  proposed,  but  the 
retention  of  the  fourth  instalment  of  the  deposit 
to  be  made  with  the  States,  and  a  temporary 
issue  of  treasury  notes  to  supply  the  deficiency 
until  the  incoming  revenue  should  replenish  the 
treasury.  The  following  was  that  recommendar 
tion: 

"It  is  not  proposed  to  procure  the  reouired 
amoimt  by  loans  or  increased  taxation.  There 
are  now  in  the  treasury  nine  millions  three 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand  two  hundred 
and  fourteen  dollars,  directed  by  the  Act  of  the 
23d  of  June,  1836,  to  be  deposited  with  the 
States  in  October  next.  This  sum,  if  so  depos- 
ited, will  be  subject,  under  the  law,  to  be  re- 
called, if  needed,  to  defray  existing  appropria- 
tions ;  and,  as  it  is  now  evident  that  the  wholes 


32 


THIRTT  YEABS'  VIKW. 


or  the  principal  part  of  it,  will  be  wanted  for 
that  porpoBe,  it  appears  m9st  proper  that  the 
deposits  sboold  be  withheld.  Until  the  amount 
can  be  collected  from  the  banks,  treasury  notes 
may  be  temporarily  issued,  to  be  gradually  re- 
deemed as  it  is  received." 

Six  millions  of  treasury  notes  only  were  re- 
quired, and  from  this  small  amount  required,  it 
is  easy  to  see  how  readily  an  adequate  amount 
could  haye  been  secured  from  the  deposit 
banks,  if  the  administration  had  foreseen  a 
month  or  two  beforehand  that  the  suspension 
was  to  take  place.  An  issue  of  treasury  notes, 
being  an  imitation  of  the  exchequer  biU  issues 
of  the  British  goyemment,  which  had  been  the 
facile  and  noiseless  way  of  swamping  that  goy- 
emment in  bottomless  debt,  was  repugnant  to 
the  policy  of  this  writer,  and  opposed  by  him : 
but  of  this  hereafter.  The  third  instalment  of 
the  depo9it,  as  it  was  called,  had  been  receiyed 
by  the  States — ^receiyed  in  depreciated  paper, 
and  the  fourth  demanded  in  the  same.  A  de- 
posit demanded !  and  claimed  as  a  debt ! — that 
is  to  say :  the  word  ^deposU^^  used  in  the  act 
admitted  to  be  both  by  Congress  and  the  States 
a  fraud  and  a  trick,  and  distribution  the 
thing  intended  and  done.  Seldom  has  it  hap- 
pened that  so  gross  a  fraud,  and  one,  too,  in- 
tended to  cheat  the  constitution,  has  been  so 
promptly  acknowledged  by  the  high  parties 
perpetrating  it    But  of  this  also  hereafter. 

The  decorum  and  reserye  of  a  State  paper 
would  not  allow  the  President  to  expatiate 
upon  the  enormity  of  the  suspension  which  had 
been  contriyed,  nor  to  discriminate  between  the 
honest  and  solyent  banks  which  had  been  taken 
by  surprise  and  swept  off  in  a  current  which 
they  could  not  resist,  and  the  insolyent  or  crim- 
inal class,  which  contriyed  the  catastrophe  and 
exulted  in  its  success.  He  could  only  hint  at 
the  discrimination,  and,  while  reoonunending 
the  bankrupt  process  for  one  class,  to  express 
his  belief  that  with  all  the  honest  and  solyent 
institutions  the  suspension  would  be  temporary, 
and  that  they  would  seize  the  eariiest  moment 
which  the  conduct  of  others  would  permit,  to 
yindicate  their  integrity  and  ability  by  return- 
ing to  specie  payments. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

ATTAOEB  ON  THE  MESSAGE:   TBEA8UEY  NOTES. 

Undex    the    first    two    of    our    Presidents, 
Washington,  and  the  first   Mr.    Adams,  the 
course  of  the  British  Parliament  was  followed 
in  answering  the  address  of  the  President,  as  the 
course  of  the  soyereign  was  followed  in  deliyer- 
ing  it    The  Soyereign  deliyered  his  address  in 
person  to  the  two  assembled  Houses,  and  each 
answered  it :  our  two  first  Presidents  did  the 
same,  and  the  Houses  answered.    The  purport 
of  the  answer  was  always  to  express  a  concur- 
rence, or  non-concurrence   with   the    general 
policy  of  the  goyemment  as  thus  authentically 
exposed;  and  the  priyilege  of  answering  the 
address  laid  open  the  policy  of  the  goyemment 
to  the  ftillest  discussion.      The  efiect  of  the 
practice  was  to  lay  open  the   state    of  the 
country,  and  the  public  policy,  to  the  fullest  dis- 
cussion ;  and,  in  the  character  of  the  answer, 
to  decide  the  question  of  accord  or  disaccord — 
of  support  or  opposition — between  the  repre- 
sentatiye  and  the  executiye  branches  of  the 
goyemment     The  change  fix>m  the    address 
deliyered  in  person,  with  its  answer,  to  the 
message  sent  by  the  priyate  secretary,  and  no 
answer,  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
considered  a  reform ',  but  it  was  questioned  at 
the  time,  whether  any  good  would  come  of  it, 
and  whether  that  would  not  be  done  irregularly, 
in  the  course  of  the  debates,  which  otherwise 
would  haye  been  done  regularly  in  the  discussion 
of  the  address.  The  administration  policy  would 
be  sure  to  be  attacked,  and  irregularly,  in  the 
course  of  business,  if  the  spirit  of  opposition 
should  not  be  allowed  full  indulgence   in  a 
general  and  regular  discussion.     The  attacks 
would  come,  and   many   of   Mr.   Jefferson's 
friends  thought  it  better  they  should  come  at 
once,  and  occupy  the  first  week  or  two  of  the  ses- 
si(»i,  than  to  be  scattered  through  the  whole  ses- 
sion and  mixed  up  with  all  its  business.  But  the 
change  was  made,  and  has  stood,  and  now  any 
bill  or  motion  is  laid  hold  o^  to  hang  a  speech 
upon,  against  the  measures  or  policy  of  an 
administration.    This  was  signally  the  case  at 
this  extra  session,  in   relation   to  Mr.   Van 
Buren's  poli^.     He  had  staked  himself  too 


Asnro  im.  mabten  vak  bubsn,  president. 


S3 


decbivel  J  against  too  large  a  cQmbination  of 
interests  to  expect  moderation  or  justice  from 
his  opponents;  and  he  reoeiTcd  none.  Seldom 
has  any  President  been  yisited  with  more 
nQlent  and  general  assaults  than  he  reoeiTed, 
almost  eveiy  opposition  speaker  assailing  some 
part  of  the  message.  One  of  the  number,  Mr. 
Caleb  Gushing,  of  Massachusetts,  made  it  a 
business  to  reply  to  the  whole  document,  for- 
mally and  elaborately,  under  two  and  thirty 
distinct  heads — the  number  of  points  in  the 
mariner's  compass :  each  head  bearing  a  caption 
to  indicate  its  point :  and  in  that  speech  any 
one  that  chooses,  can  find  in  a  condensed  form, 
and  convenient  for  reading,  all  the  points  of  ac- 
cnsation  agunst  the  democratic  policy  from  the 
beginning  of  the  goyemment  down  to  that  day. 

Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  assailed  it  for 
what  it  contained,  and  for  what  it  did  not — ^for 
its  specific  recommendations,  and  for  its  omission 
to  recommend  measures  which  they  deemed 
necessary.  The  specie  payments — ^the  discon- 
nection with  banks— the  retention  of  the  fourth 
instalment— the  bankrupt  act  against  banks — 
the  brief  issue  of  treasury  notes ;  all  were  con- 
demned as  measures  improper  in  themselves 
and  inadequate  to  the  relief  of  the  country: 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  national  bank  ap- 
peared to  them  to  be  the  proper  and  adequate 
remedy  for  the  public  evils.  With  them  acted 
many  able  men :— in  the  Senate,  Bayard,  of  Del- 
aware, Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  John  Davis, 
of  Massachusetts,  Preston,  of  South  Carolina, 
Southard,  of  New  Jersey,  Rives,  of  Virginia:— 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  Richard 
Biddle,  of  Pennsylvania,  Gushing,  of  Massachu- 
setts, Fillmore,  of  New  York,  Henry  Johnson, 
of  Louisiana,  Hunter  and  Mercer,  of  Virginia, 
John  Pope,  of  Kentucky,  John  Saigeant,  Un- 
derwood of  Kentucky,  Lewis  Williams,  Wise. 
An  these  were  speaking  members,  and  in  their 
diversity  of  talent  displayed  all  the  varieties  of 
effective  speaking— close  reasoning,  sharp  invec- 
tive, impassioned  declamation,  rhetoric,  logic. 

On  the  other  hand  was  an  equal  array,  both 
in  number  and  speaking  talent,  on  the  other 
side,  defending  and  supporting  the  recommendar 
tions  of  the  President :— in  the  Senate,  Siks 
Wright,  Grundy,  John  M.  Niles,  King,  of 
Alabama,  Strange,  of  North  Carolina,  Buchan- 
an, Calhoun,  Linn,  of  Missouri,  Benton,  Bed- 
VOL.  II.— 8 


ford  Brown,  of  North  Carolina,  William  Allen, 
of  Ohio,  John  P.  King,  of  Georgia,  Walker,  of 
Mississippi : — in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
Cambreleng,  of  New  York,  Hamer,  of  Ohio, 
Howard  and  Francis  Thomas,  of  Maryland, 
McKay,  of  North  Carolma,  John  M.  Patton, 
Francis  Pickens. 

The  treasury  note  bill  was  one  of  the  first 
measures  on  which  the  struggle  took  place.  It 
was  not  a  fiivorite  with  the  whole  body  of  the 
democracy,  but  the  nujority  preferred  a  small 
issue  of  that  paper,  intended  to  operate,  not  as 
a  currency,  but  as  a  ready  means  of  borrowing 
money,  and  especially  from  small  capitalists; 
and,  therefore,  preferable  to  a  direct  loan.  It 
was  opposed  as  a  paper  money  bill  in  disguise, 
as  germinating  a  new  national  debt,  and  as  the 
easy  mode  of  raising  money,  so  ready  to  run 
into  abuse  from  its  very  facility  of  use.  The 
President  had  recommended  the  issue  in  gen- 
eral terms :  the  Secretaiy  of  the  Treasury  had 
descended  into  detail,  and  proposed  notes  as 
low  as  twenty  dollars,  and  without  inteivst 
The  Senate's  committee  rejected  that  proposi- 
tion, and  reported  a  bill  only  for  large  notes — 
none  less  than  100  dollars,  and  bearing  interest; 
so  as  to  be  used  for  investment,  not  circulation. 
Mr.  Webster  assailed  the  Secretary's  plan,  say* 
inff— 

*' He  proposes,  sir,  to  issue  treasury  notes  of 
small  denominations,  down  even  as  low  as 
twenty  dolhurs,  not  bearing  interest,  and  re- 
deemable at  no  fixed  period ;  they  are  to  be  re- 
ceived in  debts  due  to  govenmient,  but  are  not 
otherwise  to  be  paid  until  at  some  indefinite 
time  there  shall  be  a  certain  surplus  in  tiie 
treasury  beyond  what  the  Secretary  may  think 
its  wants  require.  Now,  sir,  this  is  plain,  au- 
thentic, statutable  paper  money ;  it  is  ezactiy  a 
new  emission  of  old  continental.  If  the  genius 
of  the  old  confederation  were  now  to  rise  up  in 
the  midst  of  us,  he  could  not  furnish  us,  firom 
the  abundant  stores  of  his  recollection,  with  a 
more  peiftct  model  of  paper  money.  It  carries 
no  interest;  it  has  no  fixed  time  of  payment ; 
it  is  to  circulate  as  currency,  and  it  is  to  circu- 
late on  the  credit  of  government  alone,  with  no 
fixed  period  of  redemption!  If  this  be  not 
paper  money,  pray,  sii^what  is  it?  And,  sir, 
who  expected  this?  Who  expected  that  in  the 
fifth  year  of  the  experiment  for  reforming  tks 
currency,  and  bringing  it  to  an  absolute  gold 
and  silver  circulation,  tiie  Treasury  Department 
would  be  found  recommending  to  us  a  regular 
emismon  of  paper  monev?  This,  sir,  is  quite 
new  in  the  histoiy  of  this  eovemment^  it  be- 
longs to  that  of  the  confederation  which  has 


34 


THIRTY  TEARS'  VIEW. 


passed  away.  Since  1789,  although  we  haye 
issued  treasury  notes  on  sundry  occasions,  we 
have  issued  none  like  these ;  that  is  to  say,  we 
have  issued  none  not  bearing  interest^  intended 
for  circulation,  and  with  no  fixed  mode  of  re- 
demption. I  am  glad,  howerer,  Mr.  President, 
that  the  committee  have  not  adopted  the  Secre- 
tary's recommendation,  and  that  they  haye  re- 
commended  the  issue  or  treasury  notes  of  a  de- 
scription more  conformable  to  the  practice  of 
the  goyemment." 

Mr.  Benton,  though  opposed  to  the  policy  of 
issuing  these  notes,  and  preferring  himself  a 
direct  loan  in  this  case,  yet  defended  the  partic- 
ular bill  which  had  been  brought  in  from  the 
character  and  effects  ascribed  to  it,  and  said : 

^He  should  not  haye  risen  in  this  debate, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  misapprehensions  which 
seemed  to  peryade  the  minds  of  some  senators 
as  to  the  character  of  the  bill.  It  is  called  by 
some  a  paper-money  bill,  and  by  others  a  bill 
to  germmate  a  new  national  debt  These  are 
serious  imputations,  and  require  to  be  answered, 
not  by  declamation  and  recrimination,  but  by 
fibcts  and  reasons,  addressed  to  the  candor  and 
to  the  intelli^ce  of  an  enlightened  and  patri- 
otic community. 

"  I  dissent  from  the  imputations  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  bilL  I  maintain  that  it  is  neither 
a  paper-money  bill,  nor  a  bill  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion for  a  new  national  debt;  and  will  briefly 
giye  my  reasons  for  belieying  as  I  do  on  both 
points. 

"  There  are  certainly  two  classes  of  treasury 
notes — one  for  inyestment,  and  one  for  circular 
tion ;  and  both  classes  are  known  to  our  laws, 
and  possess  distinctiye  features,  which  define 
their  respectiye  characters,  and  confine  them  to 
their  respectiye  uses. 

^The  notes  for  inyestment  bear  an  interest 
snfScient  to  induce  capitalists  to  exchange  gold 
and  silyer  for  theuL  and  to  lay  them  by  as  a 
productiye  fund.  This  is  their  distinctiye  fea- 
ture, but  not  the  only  one ;  they  possess  other 
subsidiary  qualities,  such  as  transferability  only 
by  indorsement — payable  at  a  fixed  time — not 
re-issuable — nor  of  small  denomination — and  to 
be  cancelled  when  pud.  Notes  of  this  class  are, 
in  fact,  loan  notes — ^notes  to  raise  loans  on,  b^ 
selling  them  for  hard  money — either  immedi- 
ately by  the  Secretary  of  the  TreEumry,  or, 
secondarily,  by  the  creditor  of  the  goyemment 
to  whom  they  haye  been  paid.  In  a  word,  they 
possess  all  the  qualities  which  inyite  inyest- 
ment and  forbid  and  impede  circulation. 

"  The  treasury  notes  for  currency  are  distin- 
guished by  features  and  qualities  the  reyerse  of 
those  which  haye  been  mentioned.  They  bear 
little  or  no  interest  They  are  payable  to  bearer 
— transferable  by  deliyeiy— re-issuable— of  low 
denominationi— Vnd  frequently  reimbursable  at 
"^^  pleasure  of  the  goyemment    They  are,  in 


fact,  P^per  money,  and  possess  all  the  qualities 
which  forbid  inyestment,  and  inyite  to  circula- 
tion. The  treasury  notes  of  1815  were  of  that 
character,  except  for  the  optional  clause  to  ena- 
ble the  holder  to  fund  them  at  the  interest 
which  commanded  loans — at  seyen  per  cent 

"  These  are  the  distinctiye  features  of  the  two 
classes  of  notes.  Now  try  the  committee's  bill 
by  the  test  of  these  qualities.  It  will  be  found 
that  the  notes  which  it  authorizes  belong  to  the 
first-named  class ;  that  they  are  to  bear  an  in- 
terest, which  may  be  six  per  cent. ;  that  they 
are  transferable  only  by  indorsement;  that 
they  are  not  re-issuable ;  that  they  are  to  be 
pud  at  a  day  certain — to  wit  within  one  year ; 
that  they  are  not  to  be  issued  of  less  denomina- 
tion thui  one  hundred  dollars ;  are  to  be  can- 
celled when  taken  up ;  and  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  is  expressly  authorized  to  raise 
money  upon  them  by  loaning  them. 

^  These  are  the  features  and  qualities  of  the 
notes  to  be  issued,  and  they  define  and  fix  their 
character  as  notes  to  raise  loans,  and  to  be  laid 
by  as  inyestments,  and  not  as  notes  for  cur- 
rency, to  be  pushed  into  circulation  by  the 
power  of  the  goyemment ;  and  to  add  to  the 
curse  of  the  day  by  increasing  the  quantity  of 
unconyertible  paper  money." 

Though  yielding  to  an  issue  of  these  notes  in 
this  particular  form,  limited  in  size  of  the  notes 
to  bne  hundred  dollars,  yet  Mr.  Benton  deemed 
it  due  to  himself  and  the  subject  to  enter  a  pro- 
test agunst  the  policy  of  such  issues,  and  to 
expose  their  dangerous  tendency,  both  to  slide 
into  a  paper  currency,  and  to  steal  by  a  noise- 
less march  into  the  creation  of  public  debt,  and 
thus  expressed  himself: 

^'  I  trust  I  haye  yindicated  the  bill  from  the 
stigma  of  being  a  paper  currency  bill,  and  from 
the  imputation  of  being  the  first  step  towards 
the  creation  of  a  new  national  debt  I  hope  it 
is  fully  cleared  from  the  odium  of  both  tiiese 
imputations.  I  will  now  say  a  few  words  on 
the  policy  of  issuing  treasury  notes  in  time  of 
peace,  or  eyen  in  time  of  war,  until  the  ordinary 
resources  of  loans  and  taxes  had  been  tried  and 
exhausted.  I  am  no  friend  to  the  issue  of 
treasury  notes  of  any  kind.  As  loan&  they  are 
a  disguised  mode  of  borrowing,  and  easy  to 
slide  mto  a  currency :  as  a  currency,  it  is  the 
most  seductiye,  the  most  dangerous,  and  the 
most  liable  to  abuse  of  all  the  descriptions  of 
paper  money.  'The  stamping  of  paper  (by 
goyemment)  is  an  operation  so  much  easier 
than  the  laying  of  taxes,  or  of  borrowing 
money,  that  a  goyemment  in  the  habit  of  paper 
emissions  woi2d  rarely  fiiil,  in  any  emergency, 
to  indulge  itself  too  far  in  the  employment  of 
that  resource,  to  ayoid  as  much  as  possible  one 
less  auspicious  to  present  popularity.'  So  said 
Gkneral  Hamilton;   and  Jefferson,  Madison 


ANNO  1887.    MABTTN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


35 


Macon,  Randolph,  and  all  the  fiithen  of  the 
republican  church,  concurred  with  him.  These 
saeaciouB  statesmen  were  shy  of  this  fiuale  and 
seductive  resource,  ^  so  liable  to  abus^  and  so 
certain  of  being  abused.'  Thej  held  it  madmis- 
sible  to  recur  to  it  in  time  of  peace,  and  that  it 
could  only  be  thought  of  amidst  the  exigencies 
and  perils  of  war,  and  that  after  exhausting  the 
dire<^  and  responsible  altematiye  of  loans  and 
taxes.  Bred  in  the  school  of  these  great  men. 
I  came  here  at  this  session  to  oppose,  at  all 
risks,  an  issue  of  treasury  notes.  I  preferred  a 
direct  loan,  and  that  for  many  and  cogent  rea- 
sons. There  is  dear  authority  to  borrow  in  the 
constitution;  but,  to  find  authority  to  issue 
these  notes,  we  must  enter  the  field  of  con- 
structiye  powers.  To  borrow,  is  to  do  a  re- 
sponsible act ;  it  is  to  incur  certun  aooounta- 
bility  to  the  constituent,  and  heayy  censure  if 
it  cannot  be  justified ;  to  issue  these  notes,  is  to 
do  an  act  which  few  consider  of,  which  takes 
but  little  hold  of  the  public  mind,  which  few 
condemn  and  some  encourage,  because  it  in- 
creases the  quantum  of  what  is  vainly  called 
money.  Loans  are  limited  by  the  capacity,  at 
least,  of  one  side  to  borrow,  and  of  the  other  to 
lend :  the  issue  of  these  notes  has  no  limit  but 
the  will  of  the  makers,  and  the  supply  of  lamp- 
black and  rags.  The  continental  bills  of  the 
Reyolution,  and  the  assignats  of  FrancCp  should 
furnish  some  instructiye  lessons  on  this  head. 
Direct  loans  are  always  voluntary  on  the  part 
of  the  lender;  treasury  note  loans  may  be  a 
fbroed  borrowing  firom  the  government  creditor 
— as  much  so  as  if  the  bayonet  were  put  to  his 
breast ;  for  necessity  has  no  law,  and  the  neces- 
sitous daimant  must  take  what  is  tendered, 
whether  with  or  without  interest — ^whether  ten 
or  fifty  per  cent  below  par.  I  distrust,  dislike, 
and  would  fain  eschew,  this  treasury  note  re- 
^arce.  I  prefer  the  direct  loans  of  1820-'21. 
1  could  only  bring  myself  to  acquiesce  in  this 
measure  when  it  was  urged  that  there  was  not 
time  to  carry  a  loan  through  its  forms;  nor 
even  then  could  I  consent  to  it,  until  every  fea- 
ture of  a  currency  character  had  been  eradicated 
from  the  face  of  the  hilL" 

The  bill  passed  the  Senate  by  a  general  vote, 
only  Messrs.  Clay,  Crittenden,  Preston,  South- 
ard, and  Spence  of  Maryland,  voting  against  it. 
In  the  House  of  Representatives  it  encountered 
a  more  strenuous  resistance,  and  was  subjected 
to  some  trials  which  showed  the  dangerous  pro- 
divity  of  these  notes  to  slide  from  the  founda- 
tion of  investment  into  the  slippery  path  of  cur- 
rency. Several  motions  were  made  to  reduce 
their  size — ^to  make  them  as  low  as  ^25 ;  and 
that  failing,  to  reduce  them  to  $50 ;  which  suc- 
ceeded. The  interest  was  struck  at  in  a  motion 
to  reduce  it  to  a  nominal  amount ;  and  this  mo- 
tion, like  that  for  reducing  the  minimum  size  to 


$25,  received  a  large  support — some  ninety 
votes.  The  motion  to  reduce  to  (50  was  carried 
by  a  migority  of  forty.  Returning  to  the  Senate 
with  this  amendment,  Mr.  Benton  moved  to 
restore  the  $100  limit,  and  intimated  his  inten- 
tion, if  it  was  not  done,  of  withholding  his  sup- 
port from  the  bill — declaring  that  nothing  but 
the  immediate  wants  of  the  Treasury,  and  the 
lack  of 'time  to  raise  the  money  by  a  direct  loan 
as  declared  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
could  have  brought  him  to  vote  for  treasury 
notes  in  any  shape.  Mr.  Clay  opposed  the  whole 
scheme  as  a  government  bank  in  disguise,  but 
supported  Mr.  Benton's  motion  as  being  adverse 
to  that  design.    He  said : 

'^  He  had  been  all  along  opposed  to  this  mea- 
sure^  and  he  saw  nothing  now  to  change  that 
opimon.  Mr.  C.  would  have  been  glad  to  aid 
the  wants  of  the  Treasury,  but  thought  it  might 
have  been  done  better  by  suspending  tiie  action 
of  many  appropriations  not  so  indispensably 
necessary,  rather  than  by  resorting  to  a  loan. 
Reductioxi,  economy,  retrendunent,  had  boeu  re- 
commended by  the  President,  and  why  not  then 
pursued?  mr.  C.'s  chief  objection,  however, 
was,  that  these  notes  were  mere  post  notes,  only 
differing  from  bank  notes  of  that  kind  in  giving 
the  Secretary  a  power  of  fixing  the  interest  as 
he  pleases. 

It  is,  said  Mr.  C,  a  government  bank,  issuing 
government  bank  notes ;  an  exj[>eriment  to  set 
up  a  ^vemment  bank.  It  is,  m  pomt  of  &ct, 
an  incipient  bank.  Now,  if  government  has  the 
power  to  issue  bank  notes,  and  so  to  form  in- 
directly and  covertly  a  bank,  how  is  it  that  it 
has  not  the  power  to  establish  a  national  btuik'? 
What  difference  is  there  between  a  great  govern- 
ment bank,  with  Mr.  Woodbuiy  as  the  great 
cashier,  ana  a  bank  composed  of  a  corporation 
of  private  dtizens  ?  What  difference  is  there, 
except  that  the  latter  is  better  and  safer,  ana 
more  stable,  and  more  free  fh)m  political  influ- 
ences, and  more  rational  and  more  republican  ? 
An  attack  is  made  at  Washington  upon  all  the 
banks  of  the  country,  when  we  have  at  least  one 
hundred  millions  of  oank  paper  in  cireulation. 
At  such  a  time,  a  time  too  of  peace,  instead  of 
aid,  we  denounce  them,  decry  them,  seek  to  ruin 
them,  and  begin  to  issue  paper  in  opposition  to 
them  !  Ton  resort  to  paper,  which  you  profess 
to  put  down;  you  resort  to  a  bank,  which  you 
pretend  to  decry  and  to  denounce ;  you  resort 
to  a  government  paper  currency,  aner  having 
exdaimed  against  every  currency  except  that  of 

Sid  and  silver !  Mr.  C.  said  he  should  vote  for 
r..  Benton's  amendment,  as  far  as  it  went  to 
prevent  the  creation  of  a  government  bank  and  a 
government  currency." 

Mr.  Webster  also  supported  the  motion  of 
Mr.  Benton,  saying: 


86 


THIRTT  YEABS*  VIEW. 


^  He  would  not  be  unwilling  to  giro  hifi  sup- 
port to  the  bilL  as  a  loan,  and  that  only  a  tem- 
porary loan.  He  was,  however,  utterly  opposed 
to  every  modification  of  the  measure  which  went 
to  stamp  upon  it  tiie  character  of  a  government 
currency.  All  past  experience  showed  that  such 
a  currency  would  depreciate;  that  it  will  and 
must  depredate.  He  should  vote  for  the  amend- 
ment, inasmuch  as  $100  bills  were  less  likely  to 
get  into  common  diculation  than  9^0  bills.  His 
objection  was  against  the  old  continental  money 
hi  any  shape  or  in  any  disguise,  and  he  would 
therefore  vote  for  the  amenmnent" 

The  motion  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  Id  to  25, 
the  yeas  and  nays  being : 

Tkas— Messrs.  Allen,  Benton,  Gky,  of  Ken- 
tucky, Clayton,  Kent  King,  of  Georgia^  KcKean, 
Pierce,  Rives,  Robbms,  Smith,  of  Connecticut, 
Southard,  Spenoe,  Tipton,  Webster,  White— 16. 

Nay»— Messrs.  Buchanan,  Clay,  of  Alabama, 
Crittenden,  Fulton^  Grundy,  Hubbard,  King,  of 
Alabama^  Knight,  LinzL  Lyon,  Morris,  KichoUs, 
Kiles,  Korvell,  Roane,  Robinson,  Smith,  of  Indi- 
ana^  Strange,  Swift^  Tahnadge,  Walker,  Wil- 
liams,  Wall,  Wright,  Young— 25. 


CHAPTEB  X. 

BXTEBnON  OF  THE  FOUBTH  DEPOSIT  mSTAL- 
MEBT. 

The  deposit  with  the  States  had  only  reached 
its  second  instalment  when  the  deposit  banks, 
unable  to  stand  a  continued  quarterly  drain  of 
near  ten  millions  to  the  quarter,  gave  np  the 
effort  and  closed  their  doors.  The  first  instal- 
ment had  been  delivered  the  first  of  January,  in 
specie,  or  its  equivalent ;  the  second  m  April, 
also  in  valid  money ;  the  third  one  demandable 
on  the  first  of  June,  wis  accepted  by  the  States 
in  depreciated  paper:  and  they  were  very  willing 
to  receive  the  fourth  instalment  in  the  same 
way.  It  had  cost  the  States  nothing,— was  not 
likely  to  be  called  back  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment, and  was  all  dear  gains  to  those  who  took 
it  as  a  deposit  and  held  it  as  a  donation.  But 
the  Federal  Treasury  needed  it  also;  and  like- 
wise needed  ten  millions  more  of  that  amount 
which  had  already  been  "  deposited  "  with  the 
States;  and  which  "c2epon<"  was  made  and  ac- 
cepted under  a  statute  which  required  it  to  be 
pttd  back  whenever  the  wants  of  the  Treasury 
wMQired  it.    That  want  had  now  come,  and  the 


event  showed  the  delusion  and  the  cheat  of  the 
bill  under  which  a  distribution  had  been  made 
in  the  name  of  a  deposit  The  idea  of  restitu- 
tion entered  no  one's  head!  neither  of  the 
government  to  demand  it,  nor  of  the  States  to 
render  back.  What  had  been  delivered,  was 
gone  I  that  was  a  clear  case ;  and  reclamation, 
or  rendition,  even  of  the  smallest  part,  or  at  the 
most  remote  period,  was  not  dreamed  of.  But 
there  was  a  portion  behind-~another  instalment 
of  ten  millions— deliverable  out  of  the  ^  but- 
plus  "  on  the  first  day  of  October :  but  there 
was  no  surplus :  on  tiie  contrary  a  deficit :  and 
the  retention  of  this  sum  would  seem  to  be  a 
matter  of  course  with  the  government,  only  re- 
quiring the  form  of  an  act  to  release  the  obliga- 
tion for  the  delivery.  It  was  recommended  by 
the  President,  counted  upon  in  the  treasury 
estimates,  and  its  retention  the  condition  on 
which  the  amount  of  treasury  notes  was  limited 
to  ten  millions  of  dollars.  A  bill  was  reported  for 
the  purpose,  m  the  mildest  form,  not  to  repeal 
but  to  postpone  the  clause ;  and  the  reception 
which  it  met,  though  finally  successfiil,  should  be 
an  eternal  admonition  to  the  federal  government 
never  to  have  any  money  transaction  with  its 
members — a  transaction  in  which  the  members 
become  the  masters,  and  the  devourers  of  the 
head.  The  finance  committee  of  the  Senate  had 
brought  m  a  bill  to  repeal  the  obligation  to  de- 
posit this  fourth  instalment ;  and  fixim  the  be- 
ginning it  encountered  a  serious  resistance.  Mr. 
Webster  led  the  way,  saying : 

^  We  are  to  consider  that  this  money,  accord- 
ing to  the  provisions  of  the  existing  law,  is  to 
go  eqnallv  among  aU  the  States,  and  among  iJl 
the  people;  and  the  wants  of  the  Treasury 
must  be  supplied,  if  supplies  be  necessary, 
equally  by  all  the  people.  It  is  not  a  question, 
tbierefora  whether  some  shall  have  money,  ana 
others  snail  make  good  the  deficiency.  All 
partake  in  the  distribution,  and  all  will  contri- 
bute to  the  supply.  So  that  it  is  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  convenience,  and,  in  my  opinion,  it  is 
decidedly  most  convenient  on  all  accounts,  that 
this  instalment  should  follow  its  present  desti- 
nation, and  the  necessities  of  the  Treasury  be 
provided  for  by  other  means." 

Mr.  Preston  opposed  the  repealing  bill,  prin- 
dpally  on  the  ground  that  many  of  the  States 
had  already  appropriated  this  money;  that  is 
to  say,  had  undertaken  public  works  on  tbe 
strength  of  it;  and  would  suffer  more  injury 
from  not  receiving  it  than  the  Federal  Treasury 


AJSnSfO  18S7.    MASTIir  VAN  BUBEN,  FBESIDBNX 


37 


would  raffer  from  otherwise  sapplyiiig  iti  place. 
Mr.  Crittendeo  opposed  the  bill  on  the  flame 
gnrand.  Kentacky,  he  said,  had  made  jmrnsion 
for  the  ezpenditnre  of  the  money,  and  relied 
upon  it,  and  could  not  expect  the  law  to  be 
lightly  reecinded,  or  l«oken,  on  the  fidth  of 
which  she  had  anticipated  its  use.  Other 
senators  treated  the  deposit  act  as  a  contract, 
which  the  United  States  was  bonnd  to  comply 
with  by  deliyering  all  the  instalments. 

In  the  progiress  of  the  bill  Mr.  Bnchanan 
proposed  an  amendment,  the  efibct  at  whidi 
would  be  to  change  the  essential  character  of 
the  so  called,  deposit  act^  and  conyert  it  into  a 
real  distribution  measure.  By  the  tenns  of  the 
act,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasoiy  to  call  upon  the  States  for  a  retnm 
of  the  deposit  when  needed  by  the  Federal 
Treasury:  Mr.  Buchanan  proposed  to  release 
the  Secretary  from  this  duty,  and  derolTe  it 
upon  Congress,  by  enacting  that  the  three  in- 
stalments already  deliTered,  should  remain  on 
deposit  with  the  States  until  called  for  by  Con- 
gress. Mr.  Nilee  saw  the  evil  of  the  proposition, 

and  thus  opposed  it : 

« 

^  He  must  ask  for  the  yeas  and  nays  on  the 
amendment,  and  was  son^  it  had  been  offered. 
If  it  was  to  be  fiilly  considered,  it  would  renew 
the  debate  on  the  deposit  act,  as  it  went  to 
change  the  essential  principles  and  terms  of  that 
act  A  majority  of  those  who  voted  for  that 
act  about  which  there  had  been  so  much  saicL 
and  so  much  misrepresentation,  had  professed 
to  regard  it — and  he  could  not  doubt  that  at  the 
time  they  did  so  regard  it — as  simply  a  deposit 
law;  as  merely  changing  the  place  of  deposit 
from  the  banks  to  l£e  States,  so  fiir  as  related 
to  the  surplus.  The  money  was  still  to  be  in 
the  Treasury,  and  liable  to  be  drawn  out,  with 
certain  limitations  and  restrictions,  by  the  ordi- 
nary  appropriation  laws,  without  the  direct  ac- 
tion of  Congress.  The  amendment,  if  adopted, 
will  chai^  the  principles  of  the  deposit  act, 
and  the  condition  of  the  money  deposited  with 
the  States  under  it  It  will  no  kmger  be  a  de- 
posit ;  it  will  not  be  in  the  Treasury,  even  in 
point  of  legal  effect  or  form:  the  deposit  will 
be  changed  to  a  loan,  or,  perhaps  more  properly, 
a  grant  to  the  States.  The  rights  of  the  United 
States  will  be  changed  to  a  mere  claim,  like  that 
against  the  kte  Bank  of  the  United  States;  and 
a  daim  without  any  means  to  enforce  it  We 
were  charged,  at  the  time,  of  making  a  distribu- 
tion of  the  public  revenue  to  the  States,  in  the 
disguise  and  form  of  a  deposit ;  and  this  amend- 
ment, it  appeared  to  him.  woukl  be  a  very  bold 
step  towards  confirming  tne  truth  of  that  charge. 
He  deemed  the  amendment  an  important  one, 


and  highly  otgectkmable ;  but  he  saw  that  the 
Senate  were  prepared  to  adopt  it,  and  he  would 
not  pursue  the  discussion,  but  content  himself 
with  repeating  his  request  for  the  ayes  and 
noes  on  the  question.'' 

Mr.  Buchanan  expressed  his  belief  that  the 
substitution  of  Congress  for  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  would  make  no  difference  in  the  nature 
ofthefimd:  and  that  remark  of  his,  if  understood 
as  sarcasm,  was  undoubtedly  true ;  for  the  deposit 
was  intended  as  a  distribution  by  its  autiiors 
from  the  beginning,  and  this  proposed  substitu- 
tion was  only  taking  a  step^and  an  effectual  one, 
to  make  it  so:  for  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  a  Congress  would  ever  be  found  to  call  for 
this  money  from  the  States,  which  they  were  so 
eager  to  give  to  the  States.  The  proposition  of 
Mr.  Buchanan  was  carried  by  a  large  majority 
— 33  to  12 — all  the  opponents  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  a  division  of  its  friends,  voting  for 
it  Thus,  the  whole  principle,  and  the  whole 
argument  on  which  the  deposit  act  had  been 
passed,  was  reversed.  It  was  passed  to  make 
the  State  treasuries  the  Treasury  pro  tanto  of 
the  United  States— to  substitute  the  States  for 
the  banks,  for  the  keeping  of  this  surplus  until 
it  was  wanted— and  it  was  placed  within  the 
call  of  a  federal  executive  oflScer  that  it  might 
be  had  for  the  public  service  when  needed.  AU 
this  was  reversed.  The  recall  of  the  money  was 
taken  from  the  federal  executive,  and  referred 
to  the  federal  legislative  department — to  the 
Congress,  composed  of  members  representing 
the  States— that  is  to  say,  from  the  payee  to 
the  payor,  and  was  a  virtual  relinquishment  of 
the  payment  And  thus  the  deposit  was  made 
a  mockery  and  a  cheat ;  and  that  by  those  who 
passed  it 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  the  disposi- 
tion to  treat  the  deposit  as  a  contract,  and  to 
compel  the  government  to  deliver  the  money 
(although  it  would  be  compelled  to  raise  by 
extraordinary  means  what  was  denominated  a 
surplus),  was  still  stronger  than  in  the  Senate, 
and  gave  rise  to  a  protracted  struggle,  long  and 
doubtftil  in  its  issue.  Mr.  Cushing  laid  down 
the  doctrine  of  contract,  and  thus  argued  it: 

^  The  clauses  of  the  deposit  act,  which  apper- 
tain to  the  present  question,  seem  to  me  to  pos- 
sess all  the  features  of  a  contract  It  provides 
that  the  whole  surplus  revenue  of  the  United 
States,  beyond  a  certain  sum,  which  may  be  in 
the  Treasury  on  a  certain  day,  shall  be  deposited 


38 


THIRTY  YEABS'  VIBW. 


with  the  Beyeral  States;  which  deposit  the 
States  are  to  keep  safely,  and  to  pay  back  to  the 
United  States,  whenever  the  same  shall  be 
called  for  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  a 
prescribed  time  and  mode,  and  on  the  happening 
of  a  given  contingency.  Here,  it  seems  to  me, 
18  a  contract  in  honor ;  and,  so  fiur  as  there  can 
be  a  contract  between  the  United  States  and 
the  several  States,  a  contract  in  law;  there 
bein^  reciprocal  engagements,  for  a  valuable 
consideration,  on  both  sides.  It  is,  at  any  rate, 
a  quasi-contract  They  who  impugn  this  view 
of  the  question  argue  on  the  supposition  that 
the  act,  performed  or  to  be  performed  by  the 
United  States,  is  an  inchoate  gift  of  money 
to  the  States.  Not  so.  It  is  a  contract  of 
deposit ;  and  that  contract  is  consummated,  and 
made  perfect  on  the  formal  reception  of  any  in- 
stalment of  the  deposit  by  the  States.  iN  ow, 
entertaining  this  view  of  the  transaction,  I  am 
asked  by  the  administration  to  come  fonvard 
and  break  this  contrac};.  True,  a  contract  made 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States  cannot 
be  enforced  in  law.  Does  that  make  it  either 
honest  or  honorable  for  the  United  States  to 
take  advantage  of  its  power  and  violate  its 
pledged  fitith  ?  I  refuse  to  participate  in  any 
such  breach  of  fiuth.  But  further.  The  admin- 
istration solicits  Congress  to  step  in  between 
the  United  States  and  the  States  as  a  volunteer, 
and  to  violate  a  contract,  as  the  means  of  help- 
ing the  administration  out  of  difficulties,  into 
which  its  own  madness  and  folly  have  wilfully 
sunk  it,  and  which  press  equally  upon  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  people.  The  object  of  the 
measure  is  to  relieve  the  Secretary  of  the  Trea- 
sury from  the  responsibility  of  acting  in  this 
matter  as  he  has  the  power  to  do.  Let  him  act. 
I  will  not  go  out  of  my  way  to  interpose  in 
this  between  the  Executive  and  the  several 
States,  until  the  administration  appeals  to  me 
in  the  right  spirit.  This  it  has  not  done.  The 
Executive  comes  to  us  with  a  new  doctrine, 
which  is  echoed  by  his  friends  in  this  House, 
namely,  that  the  American  government  is  not 
to  exert  itself  for  the  relief  of  the  American 
people.  Very  welL  If  this  be  your  policy,  I, 
as  representing  the  people,  will  not  exert  myself 
for  the  reli^  ^  your  administratioiL" 

Such  was  the  chicanery,  unworthy  of  a  pie- 
poudre court— with  which  a  statute  of  the 
federal  Congress,  stamped  with  every  word,  in- 
vested with  every  form,  hung  with  every  attri- 
bute, to  define  it  a  deposit — ^not  even  a  loan — 
was  to  be  pettifogged  into  agift !  and  a  contract 
for  a  gift !  and  the  federal  Treasury  required  to 
stand  and  deliver !  and  all  that,  not  in  a  low 
law  court,  where  attorneys  oongr^ate,  but  in 
the  high  national  legislature,  where  candor 
and  firmness  alone  should  appear.  History 
would  be  ikithless  to  her  mission  if  she  did 


not  mark  such  conduct  for  reprobatk>n,  and  in- 
voke a  public  judgment  upon  it 

After  a  prolonged  contest  the  vote  was  taken, 
and  the  bill  carried,  but  by  the  smallest  majority 
— ^119  to  117 ;— a  difference  of  two  votes,  which 
was  only  a  difference  of  one  member.  But 
even  that  was  a  delusive  victory.  It  was  im- 
mediately seen  that  more  than  one  had  voted 
with  the  minority,  not  for  the  purpose  of  pass- 
ing the  bill,  but  to  gain  the  privilege  of  a  miyor- 
ity  member  to  move  for  a  reconsideration.  Mr. 
Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  immediately  made 
that  motion,  and  it  was  carried  by  a  minority  of 
70!  Mr.  Pickens  then  proposed  an  amend- 
ment, which  was  to  substitute  definite  for  in- 
definite postponement — to  postpone  to  a  day 
certain  instead  of  the  pleasure  of  Congress :  and 
the  first  day  of  January,  1839,  was  the  day 
proposed;  and  that  without  reference  to  the 
condition  of  the  Treasury  (which  might  not  then 
have  any  surplus),  for  the  transfer  of  this  fourth 
instalment  of  a  deposit  to  the  States.  The  vote 
being  taken  on  this  proposed  imendment,  it  was 
carried  by  a  majority  of  40 :  and  that  amend- 
ment being  concurred  in  by  the  Senate,  the  bill 
in  that  form  became  a  law,  and  a  virtuaMegali- 
zation  of  the  deposit  into  a  donation  of  forty 
millions  to  the  States.  And  this  was  done  by 
the  votes  of  membera  who  had  voted  for  a  de- 
posit with  the  States;  because  a  donation  to 
the  States  was  unconstitutional.  The  three  in- 
stalments already  delivered  were  not  to  be  re- 
called until  Congress  should  so  order;  and  it 
was  quite  certain  that  it  never  would  so  order. 
At  the  same  time  the  nominal  discretion  of 
Congress  over  the  deposit  of  the  remainder  was 
denied,  and  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  made  pe- 
remptory to  deliver  it  in  the  brief  space  of  one 
year  and  a  quarter  ftom  that  time.  But  events 
frustrated  that  order.  The  Treasury  was  in  no 
condition  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1839,  to 
deliver  that  amount  of  money.  It  was  penniless 
itself.  The  compromise  act  of  1833,  making 
periodical  reductions  in  the  tariff,  until  the 
whole  duty  was  reduced  to  an  oc^  valorem  of 
twenty  per  cent,  had  nearly  run  its  course,  and 
left  the  Treasury  in  the  condition  of  a  borrower, 
instead  of  that  of  a  donor  or  lender  of  money. 
This  fourth  instalment  could  not  be  delivered  at 
the  time  appointe(]^  nor  subsequently ; — and  was 
finally  relinquished,  the  States  retaining  the 
amount  they  had  received:  which  wis  so  much 


AimO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


39 


deftr  gain  through  the  legisktiye  fraud  of 
maloBg  a  distribution  under  the  name  of  a  de- 
posit 

This  was  the  end  of  one  of  the  distribution 
schemes  which  had  so  long  afflicted  and  dis- 
turbed Congress  and  the  country.  Those 
schemes  began  now  to  be  known  by  their  con- 
sequenoes — evil  to  those  they  were  intended  to 
benefit)  and  of  no  senrioe  to  those  whose  popu- 
larity they  were  to  augment.  To  the  States  the 
deposit  proved  to  be  an  eyil,  in  the  contentions 
and  combinations  to  which  their  disposition  gave 
rise  m  the  general  assemblies — ^in  the  objects  to 
which  they  were  applied — and  the  futility  of  the 
help  which  they  afforded.  Popularity  hunting, 
on  a  national  scale,  gave  birth  to  the  schemes  in 
Oongress:  the  same  spirit,  on  a  smaller  and 
local  scale,  took  them  up  in  the  States.  All 
sorts  of  plans  were  proposed  for  the  employ- 
ment of  the  money,  and  combinations  more  or 
less  interested,  or  designing,  generally  carried  the 
point  in  the  universal  scramble.  In  some  States 
a  pro  rata  division  of  the  money,  per  capite,  was 
made;  and  the  distributive  share  of  each  indi- 
vidual being  but  a  few  shillings,  was  received 
with  contempt  by  some,  and  rejected  with  scorn 
by  others.  In  other  States  it  was  divided  among 
the  counties,  and  gave  rise  to  disjointed  under- 
takings of  no  general  benefit.  Others,  again, 
were  stimulated  by  the  unexpected  acquisition 
of  a  large  sum,  to  engage  in  large  and  premature 
works  of  internal  improvement,  embarrassing 
the  State  with  debt,  and  commencing  works 
which  could  not  be  finished.  Other  States 
again,  looking  upon  the  deposit  act  as  a  legis- 
lative fraud  to  cover  an  unconstitutional  and 
demoralizing  distribution  of  public  money  to  the 
people,  refused  for  a  long  time  to  receive  their 
proffered  dividend,  and  passed  resolutions  of 
censure  upon  the  authors  of  the  act  And  thus 
the  whole  policy  worked  out  differently  from 
what  had  been  expected.  The  States  and  the 
people  were  not  grateful  for  the  favor:  the 
authors  of  the  act  gained  no  presidential  elec- 
tion by  it :  and  the  gratifying  fact  became  evi- 
dent that  the  American  people  were  not  the  de- 
generate Romans,  or  the  volatile  Greeks,  to  be 
seduced  with  their  own  money— -to  give  their 
rotes  to  men  who  lavished  the  public  moneys 
on  their  wants  or  their  pleasures — in  grain  to 
feed  them,  or  in  shows  and  games  to  delight 
and  amuse  them. 


OHAPTEB  XI. 

mBEFESfBSNT  TBEABTTBY  AND  HABD  MONET 
FATMENT8. 

These  were  the  crownmg  measures  of  the  ses- 
sion, and  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration, — 
notentirely  consummated  at  that  time,  but  partly, 
and  the  rest  assured ; — and  constitute  in  &ct  an 
era  in  our  financial  history.  They  were  the 
most  strenuously  contested  measures  of  the  ses- 
sion, and  made  ibe  issue  completely  between  the 
hard  money  and  the  paper  money  systems. 
They  triumphed — ^have  maintained  their  su- 
premacy ever  since — and  vindicated  their  excel- 
lence on  trial.  Vehemently  opposed  at  the  time, 
and  the  greatest  evil  predicted,  opposition  baa 
died  away,  and  given  place  to  support ;  and  the 
predicted  evils  have  been  seen  only  in  blessings. 
No  attempt  has  been  made  to  disturb  these  great 
measures  since  their  final  adoption,  and  it  would 
seem  that  none  need  now  be  apprehended ;  but 
the  history  of  their  adoption  presents  one  of  the 
most  instructive  lessons  in  our  financial  legisla- 
tion, and  must  have  its  interest  with  future  ages 
as  well  as  with  the  present  generation.  The  bills 
which  were  brought  in  for  the  purpose  were 
dear  in  principle— simple  in  detail :  the  govern- 
ment to  receive  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  for 
its  revenues,  and  its  own  officers  to  keep  it — 
the  Treasury  bemg  at  the  seat  of  government, 
with  branches,  or  sub-treasuries  at  the  principal 
points  of  collection  and  disbursement  And 
these  treasuries  to  be  real,  not  constructive — 
strong  buildings  to  hold  the  public  moneys,  and 
special  officers  to  keep  the  keys.  The  capacious, 
strong-walled  and  well-guarded  custom  houses 
and  mints,  fiimished  in  the  great  cities  the 
rooms  that  were  wanted :  the  Treasury  building 
at  Washington  was  ready,  and  in  the  right 
place. 

This  proposed  total  separation  of  the  federal 
government  from  all  banks— called  at  the  time 
in  the  popular  language  of  the  day,  the  divorce 
of  Bank  and  State— naturally  arrayed  the  whole 
bank  power  against  it,  from  a  feeling  of  interest ; 
and  all  (or  nearly  so)  acted  in  conjunction  with 
the  once  dominant,  and  still  potent,  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  In  the  Senate,  Mr.  Webster 
headed  one  interest— «Mr.  Rives,  of  Virginia,  the 


40 


THIBTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


other;  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  had  long  acted 
with  the  opposition,  now  came  back  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  democracy,  and  gave  the  aid  without 
which  these  great  measures  of  the  session  could 
not  have  been  carried.  His  temperament  re- 
quired him  to  have  a  lead ;  and  it  was  readily 
yielded  to  him  in  the  debate  in  all  cases  where 
he  went  with  the  recommendations  of  the  mes- 
sage ;  and  hence  he  appeared,  in  the  debate  on 
these  measures,  as  the  principal  antagonist  of 
Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Rives. 

The  present  attitude  of  Mr.  Oalhoon  gave 
rise  to  some  taunts  in  relation  to  his  former 
support  of  a  national  bank,  and  on  his  present 
political  assodationa,  which  gave  him  the  oppor- 
tunity to  set  himself  right  in  relation  to  that 
institution  and  his  support  of  it  in  1816  and, 
1834.    Inthisvem  Mr.  Rives  said: 

'  It  does  seem  to  me,  Mr.  President,  that  this 
perpetual  and  gratuitous  introduction  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  into  this  debate, 
with  which  it  has  no  connection,  as  if  to  alarm 
the  imaginations  of  grave  senator^  is  but  a  poor 
evidence  of  the  intrinsic  strength  of  the  gentie- 
man's  cause.  Much  has  been  said  of  argument 
ad  eaptandum  in  the  course  of  this  discussion. 
I  have  heard  none  that  can  compare  with  this 
solemn  stalking  of  the  ghost  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  through  this  hall,  to  *  frighten 
senators  from  their  propriety.'  I  am  as  much 
opposed  to  that  institution  as  the  gentieman  or 
any  one  else  is,  or  can  be.  I  think  I  may  say  I 
have  given  some  prooft  of  it  The  gentieman  hun- 
aelf  acquits  me  of  any  design  to  favor  the  interest 
of  that  institution,  while  he  says  such  is  the 
necessary  consequence  of  my  proposition.  The 
suggestion  is  advanced  for  effect,  and  then  re- 
tracted in  form.  Whatever  be  the  new-bom 
seal  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  against 
the  Bank  of  the  United  SUtes,  I  flatter  myself 
that  I  stand  in  a  position  that  places  me,  at 
least,  as  much  above  suspicion  of  an  undue  lean- 
ing in  favor  of  that  institution  as  the  honorable 
centieman.  If  I  mistake  not,  it  was  the  senator 
from  South  Carolina  who  introduced  and  sup- 

Sorted  the  bill  for  the  charter  of  the  United 
tates  Bank  in  1816;  it  was  he,  also,  who 
brought  in  a  bill  in  1834,  to  extend  the  cnarter 
of  that  institution  for  a  term  a£  twelve  ^^ears ; 
and  none  were  more  consincuous  than  he  in  the 
well-remembered  scenes  of  that  day.  in  urging 
the  restoration  of  the  government  deposits  to 
this  same  institution." 

The  reply  of  Mr.  Calhoun  to  those  taunts, 
which  impeached  his  consistency — a  point  at 
which  he  was  always  sensitive — ^was  quiet  and 
ready,  and  the  same  that  he  had  often  been 


heard  to  exproas  in  oommon  ecmversatioiL    He 
said: 

^  In  supporting  the  bank  of  1816, 1  openly 
declared  tnat,  as  a  question  de  novo,  I  would 
be  decidedly  against  the  bank,  and  would  be  the 
last  to  give  it  my  supnort.  1  also  stated  that, 
in  supporting  the  bank  then,  I  yielded  to  the 
necessity  of  tiie  case,  ^wing  out  of  the  then  ex- 
isting and  long-established  conneetion  between 
the  government  and  the  banking  system.  I  took 
the  ground,  even  at  that  early  period,  that  so 
long  as  the  connection  existed,  so  long  as  the 
government  reodved  and  paid  away  bank  notes 
as  moTkdjy  they  were  bound  to  regulate  their 
value,  and  had  no  alternative  but  tho  establish- 
ment of  a  national  bank.  I  found  the  oonneo> 
tion  in  existence  and  established  before  my  time, 
and  over  which  I  could  have  no  control  I 
yielded  to  the  necessity,  in  order  to  correct  the 
disordered  state  of  the  currency,  which  bad 
fidlen  exclusively  under  tl^  control  ci  the 
States.  I  yielded  to  what  I  could  not  reverse^ 
just  as  any  member  of  the  Senate  now  would, 
who  might  believe  that  Louisiana  was  unconsti- 
tutionaUy  admitted  into  the  Union,  but  who 
would,  nevertheless,  feel  compelled  to  vote  to 
extena  the  laws  to  that  State,  as  one  of  its 
members,  on  the  ground  that  its  admission  was 
an  act,  whether  constitutional  or  unconstitu- 
tional, which  he  could  not  reverse.  In  1834, 1 
acted  in  conformity  to  the  same  principle,  in 
proposing  the  renewal  of  the  bank  charter  for  a 
short  period.  My  object,  as  expressly  avowed, 
was  to  use  the  buik  to  break  the  connection  be- 
tween the  ^vemment  and  the  banking  system 
gradually,  m  order  to  avert  the  catastrophe 
which  lias  now  befallen  us,  and  which  I  t^ea 
clearly  perceived.  But  the  connection,  which  I 
believed  to  be  irreversible  in  1816,  has  now  been 
broken  by  operation  of  law.  It  is  now  an  open 
question.  I  feel  myself  firee^  for  the  first  time, 
to  choose  my  course  on  this  important  subject ; 
and,  in  opposing  a  bank,  I  act  m  conformity  to 
principles  which  I  have  entertuned  ever  since  I 
nave  rally  investigated  the  subject." 

Going  on  with  his  lead  in  support  of  the 
President's  reconmiendations,  Mr.  Calhoun 
brought  forward  the  proposition  to  discontinue 
the  use  of  bank  paper  in  the  receipts  and  dis- 
bursements of  the  federal  government,  and  sup- 
ported his  motion  as  a  measure  as  necessary  to 
the  welfare  of  the  banks  themselves  as  to  the 
safety  of  the  government.  In  this  sense  he 
said; 

*' We  have  reached  a  new  era  with  regard  to 
these  institutions.  He  who  would  judge  of  the 
future  by  the  past,  in  reference  to  them,  will  be 
wholly  mistaken.  The  year  1833  marks  the 
commencement  of  this  era.  That  extraordinary- 
man,  who  had  the  power  of  imprinting  his  own 


ANNO  IWI.    MAKim  VAK  VOKES,  FRBSinENT. 


41 


fiseUngs  on  the  oomnnmitj,  then  oomnwneed 

his  hostile  attacks,  which  have  left  such  effects 
behind,  that  the  war  then  commenced  against 
the  banks,  I  clearly  see,  will  not  terminate,  un- 
less there  be  a  separation  between  them  and 
the  goTomment, — until  one  or  the  other  tri- 
mnphs—till  the  goyemment  becomes  the  bank, 
or  me  bank  the  govenmient.  In  resisting  their 
union,  I  act  as  the  friend  of  both.  I  haye^  as  I 
have  said  no  unkind  feeling  toward  the  banks. 
I  am  neiuier  a  bank  man,  nor  an  anti-bank  man. 
I  have  had  little  connection  with  them.  Many 
of  my  best  friends,  for  whom  I  have  the  high- 
est esteem,  haye  a  deep  interest  in  their  pros- 
perity, and,  as  fiu*  as  friendship  or  persouM  at- 
tachment extends,  my  inclination  would  be 
strongly  in  their  fiiTor.  But  I  stand  up  here  as 
the  representatiye  of  no  particular  interest  I 
look  to  ibd  whole,  and  to  the  future,  as  well  as 
the  present ;  and  I  shall  steadily  pursue  that 
course  which,  under  the  most  eniamd  yiew.  I 
belieye  to  be  my  duty.  In  1834  I  saw  tne 
present  crisis.  I  inyain  raised  a  warning  yoice, 
and  endeavored  to  avert  it.  I  now  see,  with 
equal  certainty,  one  fiur  more  portentous.  If 
this  struggle  is  to  go  on — ^if  the  banks  will  in- 
sist upon  a  reunion  wiUi  the  Rovemment,  against 
the  sense  of  a  large  and  influential  portion  of 
the  community — and,  above  all,  if  they  should 
succeed  in  effecting  it— a  reflux  flood  will  inev- 
itably sweep  away  the  whole  system.  A  deep 
popular  excitement  is  never  witiiout  some  rea- 
son, and  ought  ever  to  be  treated  with  respect ; 
ana  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  look  timely  into 
the  cause,  and  correct  it  before  the  excitement 
shall  become  so  great  as  to  demolish  the  object^ 
with  all  its  good  and  evil,  against  which  it  is 
directed." 

Mr.  Rives  treated  the  divorce  of  bank  and 
State  as  the  divorce  of  the  government  fcom 
the  people,  and  said : 

"Much  reliance,  ICr.  President,  *has  been 
placed  on  the  popular  catch-word  of  divorcing 
the  government  from  all  connection  with  banks. 
Nothing  is  more  delusive  and  treacherous  than 
catch-words.  How  often  has  Uw  revered  name 
of  liberty  been  invoked  in  every  Quarter  of  the 
g)obe,  and  everv  age  or  the  worlo,  to  disj^uise 
and  sanctify  the  most  heartless  despotisms. 
Let  us  beware  that^  in  attempting  to  divorce 
the  ffovemment  from  all  connection  with  banks, 
we  do  not  end  with  divorcing  the  government 
from  the  people.  As  long  as  the  people  shall 
be  satisfied  in  their  transactions  with  each 
other,  with  a  sound  convertible  paper  medium, 
with  a  due  proportion  of  the  precious  metals 
fi>rming  the  basis  of  that  medium,  and  mingled 
in  the  current  of  circulation,  why  should  the 
government  reject  altogether  this  currency  of 
uie  people,  in  the  operations  of  the  public 
Treasury?  If  this  currency  be  good  enough 
for  the  masters,  it  ought  to  be  so  for  the  ser- 


vants. If  the  government  sternly  reject,  for  its 
uses,  the  general  medium  of  exchange  adopted 
by  the  community,  is  it  not  thereby  isolated 
ftom  the  general  wants  and  business  of  the 
country,  in  relation  to  this  great  concern  of  the 
oumncy?  Do  yon  not  give  it  a  separate,  if 
not  hostile,  mterest,  and  thus,  in  effect,  produce 
a  divorce  between  govenunent  and  people  7 — a 
result  of  all  others,  to  be  most  deprecated  in  a 
republican  system.'' 

Mr.  Webster's  main  aigument  in  fiivor  of  the 
re-^stablishment  of  the  National  Bank  (which 
was  the  consummation  he  kept  steadily  in  his 
eye)  was,  as  a  regulator  of  currency,  and  of  the 
domestic  exdianges.  The  answer  to  this  was, 
that  these  arguments,  now  relied  on  as  the 
main  ones  for  the  continuanoe  of  the  institutioii, 
were  not  even  thought  of  at  its  commencement 
— that  no  such  reasons  were  hinted  at  by  Qen- 
eral  Hamilton  and  the  advocates  of  the  first 
bank— that  they  were  new-fimgled,  and  had  not 
been  brought  forward  by  others  untfl  after  the 
paper  system  had  deraxiged  both  currency  and 
exchanges; — and  that  it  was  contradictory  to 
look  for  the  cure  of  the  evil  in  the  source  of  the 
eviL  It  was  denied  that  the  regulation  of  ex- 
changes was  a  goyemment  concern,  or  that  the 
federal  government  was  created  for  any  such 
purpose.  The  buying  and  selling  of  bills  of 
exchange  was  a  business  pursuit — a  commercial 
business,  open  to  any  citizen  or  bank ;  and  the 
loss  or  profit  was  an  individual,  and  not  a  gov- 
ernment concern.  It  was  denied  that  there 
was  any  derangement  of  currency  in  the  only 
currency  which  the  constitution  recognized — 
that  of  gold  and  silver.  Whoever  had  this  cnr^ 
reacy  to  be  exchanged— that  is,  given  in  ex- 
change at  one  place  for  the  same  in  another 
place — ^now  had  the  exchange  effected  on  fair 
terms,  and  on  the  just  commercial  principle — 
that  of  paying  a  difference  equal  to  the  flight 
and  insurance  of  the  money :  and,  on  that  prin- 
ciple, gold  was  the  best  regulator  of  exchanges ; 
for  its  small  bulk  and  little  weight  in  propor- 
tion to  its  value,  made  it  easy  and  cheap  of 
transportation ;  and  brought  down  the  exchange 
to  the  minimum  cost  of  such  transportation 
(even  when  necessary  to  be  made),  and  to  the 
uniformity  of  a  permanent  business.  That  was 
the  principle  of  exchange ;  but,  ordinarily,  there 
was  no  transportation  in  the  case :  the  exchange 
dealer  in  one  dty  had  his  correspondent  in 
another:  a  letter  often  did  the  busmess.    The 


42 


THIETT  TEABS'  VIEW. 


regulation  of  the  currency  required  an  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  the  term.  As  need 
by  the  friends  of  a  National  Bank,  and  referred 
to  its  action,  the  paper  currency  alone  was  in- 
tended. The  phrase  had  got  into  Togne  since 
the  paper  currency  had  become  predominant, 
and  that  is  a  currency  not  recognized  by  the 
constitution,  but  repudiated  by  it ;  and  one  of 
its  main  objects  was  to  prevent  the  future 
existence  of  that  currency — ^the  eyils  of  which 
its  framers  had  seen  and  felt.  Qold  and  silrer 
was  the  only  currency  recognized  by  that  in- 
strument) and  its  regulation  specially  and  exclu- 
sively given  to  Congress,  which  had  lately  dis- 
charged its  duty  in  that  particular,  in  regula- 
ting the  relative  value  of  the  two  metals.  The 
gold  act  of  1834  had  made  that  r^ulation,  cor- 
recting the  error  of  previous  legislation,  and 
bad  revived  the  circulation  of  gold,  as  an  ordi- 
naiy  currency,  after  a  total  disappearance  of  it 
under  an  erroneous  valuation,  for  an  entire  gen- 
eration. It  was  in  full  circulation  when  the 
combined  stoppage  of  the  banks  again  sup- 
pressed it  That  was  the  currency — gold  and 
silver,  with  the  r^ulation  of  which  Congress 
was  not  only  intrusted,  but  charged :  and  this 
r^ulation  included  preservation.  It  must  be 
saved  before  it  can  be  regulated;  and  to  save  it, 
it  must  be  brought  into  the  country-^^md  kept 
in  it  The  demand  of  the  federal  treasury 
could  alone  accomplish  these  objects.  The 
quantity  of  specie  required  for  the  use  of  that 
treasury — ^its  large  daily  receipts  and  disburse- 
ments-Hill inexorably  confined  to  hard  money 
— ^would  create  the  demand  for  the  precious 
metals  which  would  command  their  presence, 
and  that  in  sufficient  quantity  for  the  wants  of  the 
people  as  well  as  of  the  government.  For  the 
government  does  not  consume  what  it  collects 
—does  not  melt  up  or  hoard  its  revenue,  or 
export  it  to  foreign  countries,  but  pays  it  out 
to  the  people;  and  thus  becomes  the  distributor 
of  gold  and  silver  among  theuL  It  is  the  great- 
est paymaster  in  the  countiy;  and,  while  it 
pays  in  hard  money,  the  people  wiU  be  sure  of 
a  supply.  We  are  taunted  with  the  demand : 
^  Where  is 'ike  better  currency  f^^  We  an- 
swer :  "  Suppressed  by  the  conspiracy  of  the 
banks  I "  And  this  is  the  third  time  in  the 
last  twenty  years  in  which  paper  money  has 
suppressed  specie,  and  now  suppresses  it:  for 
this  is  a  game— (the  war  between  gold  and 


paper)— in  which  the  meanest  and  weakest  is 
always  the  conqueror.  The  baser  currency 
always  displaces  the  better.  Hard  money 
needs  support  against  paper,  and  that  support 
can  be  given  by  us,  by  excluding  paper  money 
firom  all  federal  receipts  and  payments ;  and  con- 
fining paper  money  to  its  own  local  and  inferior 
orbit:  and  its  regulation  caif''be  well  accom- 
plished by  subjecting  delinquent  banks  to  the 
process  of  bankruptcy,  and  their  small  notes  to 
suppression  imder  a  federal  stamp  duty. 

The  distress  of  the  country  figured  largely  in 
the  speeches  of  several  members,  but  without 
finding  much  S3rmpathy .  That  engine  of  opera- 
ting upon  the  government  and  the  people  had 
been  over-worked  in  the  panic  session  of  1833-^34^ 
and  was  now  a  stale  resource,  and  a  crippled  ma- 
chine. The  suspension  appeared  to  the  country  to 
have  been  purposely  contrived,  and  wantonly  coi^ 
tinned.  There  was  now  more  gold  and  silver  in 
the  coimtry  than  had  ever  been  seen  in  it  before 
— four  times  as  much  as  in  1832,  when  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  was  in  its  palmy  state,  and 
was  vaunted  to  have  done  so  much  for  the  cur- 
rency. Twenty  millions  of  silver  was  then  its 
own  estimate  of  the  amount  of  that  metal  in  the 
United  States,  and  not  a  particle  of  gold  in- 
cluded in  the  estimate.  Now  the  estimate  of 
gold  and  silver  was  eighty  millions ;  and  with 
this  supply  of  the  precious  metals,  and  the  de- 
termination of  all  the  sound  banks  to  resume  as 
soon  as  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  could  be 
forced  into  resumption,  or  forced  into  open  in- 
solvency, so  as  to  lose  control  over  others,  the 
suspension  and  embarrassment  were  obliged  to 
be  of  brief  continuance.  Such  were  the  argu- 
ments of  the  friends  of  hard  money. 

The  divorce  bill,  as  amended,  passed  the 
Senate,  and  though  not  acted  upon  in  the  House 
during  this  called  session,  yet  received  the  im- 
petus which  soon  carried  it  through,  and  gives 
it  a  right  to  be  placed  among  the  measures  of 
that  session. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ATTSMFTED  RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS. 

Ths  suspension  of  the  banks  commenced  at  New 
York,  and  took  place  on  the  morning  of  the  10th 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


43 


of  May:  those  of  Philadelphia,  headed  liytheBank 
of  the  United  States,  closed  their  doors  two  days 
after,  and  merely  in  consequence,  as  they  allied, 
of  theNew  York  suspension;  and  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  espedaUy  dedared  its  wish  and 
ability  to  ha^e  continued  specie  payments  with- 
out reserre,  but  felt  it  proper  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample which  had  been  set  All  this  was  known 
to  be  a  fiction  at  the  time ;  and  the  events  were 
soon  to  come,  to  prove  it  to  be  so.  As  early  as 
the  15th  of  August  ensuing — in  less  than  one 
hundred  days  after  the  suspension— the  banks 
of  New  York  took  the  initiatory  steps  towards 
resuming.  A  general  meeting  of  the  officers  of 
the  banks  of  the  city  took  place,  and  appomted 
a  committee  to  correspond  with  other  banks  to 
procure  the  appointment  of  delegates  to  agree 
upon  a  time  of  general  resumption.  In  this 
meeting  it  was  unanimously  resolved :  "  That 
the  banks  of  the  several  States  be  respect/idly 
invited  to  appoint  delegates  to  meet  on  the 
21  th  day  of  November  next^  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  on  the 
time  when  specie  payments  may  be  resumed 
with  safety  ;  and  on  the  measures  necessary  to 
effect  that  purpose?^  Three  citizens,  eminently 
respectable  in  themselves,  and  presidents  of  the 
leading  institutions — Messrs^  Albert  Gallatin, 
George  Newbold,  and  Cornelius  W.  Lawrence — 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  correspond  with 
other  banks  on  the  subject  of  the  resolution. 
They  did  so;  and,  leaving  to  each  bank  the 
privilege  of  sending  as  many  delegates  as  it 
pleased,  they  warmly  urged  the  importance  of 
the  occasion,  and  that  the  banks  from  each 
State  should  be  represented  in  the  proposed 
convention.  There  was  a  general  concurrence 
in  the  invitation ;  but  the  convention  did  not 
take  place.  One  powerful  interest,  strong 
enough  to  paralyze  the  movement,  refused  to 
oome  into  it.  That  interest  was  the  Philadel- 
phia banks,  headed  by  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States!  So  soon  were  fallacious  pretensions 
exploded  when  put  to  the  test.  And  the  test 
in  this  case  was  not  resumption  itself^  but  only 
a  meeting  to  confer  upon  a  time  when  it  would 
suit  the  general  interest  to  resume.  Even  to 
unite  in  that  conference  was  refused  by  this  ar- 
rogant interest,  affecting  such  a  superiority  over 
all  other  banks ;  and  pretending  to  have  been 
only  dragged  into  their  condition  by  their  ex- 
ample.   But  a  reason  had  to  be  given  for  this 


refiisa],  and  it  was— «[id  was  worthy  of  the 
party ;  namely,  that  it  was  not  proper  to  do 
any  thing  in  the  business  until  after  the  ad- 
journment of  the  extra  session  of  Congress. 
That  answer  was  a  key  to  the  movements  in 
Congress  to  thwart  the  government  plans,  and 
to  coerce  a  renewal  of  the  United  States  Bank 
charter.  After  the  termination  of  the  session  it 
will  be  seen  that  another  reason  for  ref^isal  was 
found. 


OHAPTEB  XIII. 

BA17KBUFT  ACT  AGAINST  BANES. 

Tms  was  the  stringent  measure  recommended 
by  the  President  to  cure  the  evil  of  bank  sus- 
pensions. Scattered  through  all  the  States  of 
the  Union,  and  only  existing  as  local  institu- 
tions,  the  federal  government  could  exercise  no 
direct  power  over  them ;  and  the  impossibility 
of  bring^g  the  State  legislatures  to  act  in  con- 
cert, left  the  institutions  to  do  as  they  pleased ; 
or  rather,  left  even  the  insolvent  ones  to  do  as 
they  pleased;  for  these,  dominating  over  the 
others,  and  governed  by  their  own  necessities,  or 
designs,  compelled  the  solvent  banks,  through 
panic  or  self-defence,  to  follow  their  example. 
Three  of  these  general  suspensions  had  occurred 
in  the  last  twenty  years.  The  notes  of  these 
banks  constituting  the  mass  of  the  circulating 
medium,  put  the  actual  currency  into  the  hands 
of  these  institutions;  leaving  the  community 
helpless ;  for  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  indi- 
viduals to  contend  with  associated  corporations 
It  was  a  reproach  to  the  federal  government  to 
be  unable  to  correct  this  state  of  things — to  see 
the  currency  of  the  constitution  driven  out  of 
circulation,  and  out  of  the  country ;  and  substi- 
tuted by  depreciated  paper ;  and  the  very  evil 
produced  which  it  was  a  main  object  of  the  conr 
stitution  to  prevent  The  fhuners  of  that  instru- 
ment were  hard-money  men.  They  had  seen 
the  evils  of  paper  money,  and  intended  to  guard 
their  posterity  against  what  they  themselves  had 
suffered.  They  had  done  so,  as  they  believed, 
in  the  prohibition  upon  the  States  to  issue  bills 
of  credit ;  and  in  the  prohibition  upon  the  States 
to  make  any  thing  but  gold  and  silver  a  tender 
in  discharge  of  debts.    The  mvention  of  banks, 


44 


TEOBTT  YEABSf  VIEW. 


and  their  power  OTer  the  oommumty,  had  nnUi- 
fled  this  just  and  wise  mtention  of  tibe  oonstita- 
tlon ;  and  certainly  it  would  be  a  reproach  to 
that  instniment  if  it  was  incapable  of  protecting 
itself  against  sach  enemies,  at  such  an  important 
point  Thus  &r  it  had  been  found  so  incapable; 
but  it  WIS  a  question  whether  the  finlt  was  in 
the  instrument)  or  in  its  administrators.  There 
were  many  who  belieTed  it  entirely  to  be  the 
fault  of  the  latter— who  beUered  that  the  con- 
stitution had  ample  means  of  protection,  within 
itself^  against  insolyent,  or  delinquent  banks — 
and  that,  all  that  was  wanted  was  a  will  in  the 
federal  legislature  to  apply  the  remedy  which 
the  evil  required.  This  remedy  was  the  process 
of  bankruptcy,  under  which  a  delinquent  bank 
might  be  instantly  stopped  in  its  operations — 
its  circulation  called  in  and  paid  off ,  as  fiur  as  its 
assets  would  go— itself  closed  upland  all  po?rer 
of  further  mischief  immediately  terminated. 
This  remedy  it  was  now  proposed  to  apply. 
President  Van  Buren  recommended  it :  he  was 
the  first  President  who  had  had  the  merit  of 
doing  so;  and  all  that  was  now  wanted  was  a 
Congress  to  back  him:  and  that  was  a  great 
want!  one  hard  to  supply.  A  powerful  array, 
strongly  combined,  was  on  the  other  side,  both 
moneyed  and  political.  All  the  local  banks 
were  against  it ;  and  they  counted  a  thousand 
— ^their  stockholders  myriads; — and  many  of 
their  owners  and  debtors  were  in  Oongrees: 
the  (still  so-caUed)  Bank  of  the  United  States 
was  against  it:  and  its  power  and  influence 
were  still  great :  the  whole  political  party  ojh 
posed  to  the  administration  were  against  it^  as 
well  because  opposition  is  always  a  necessily  of 
the  party  out  of  power,  as  a  means  of  getting  in, 
as  because  in  the  actual  drcumstanoes  of  the 
present  state  of  things  oj^xmtion  was  essential 
to  the  success  of  the  outside  party.  Mr.  Webster 
was  the  first  to  oppose  the  measure,  and  did  so, 
seeming  to  question  the  right  of  Congress  to 
apply  the  remedy  rather  than  to  question  the 
expediency  of  it    He  said: 

^  We  bayo  seen  the  declaration  of  the  President, 
hi  whidi  he  says  that  he  refrains  from  suggesting 
any  specific  plan  fer  the  regulation  of  the  ezchan- 
fles  ortbe  country,  and  for  relieving  mercantile  em- 
barrassments, or  for  interfering  with  the  ordinary 
operation  of  foreign  or  domestic  commerce ;  and 
that  he  does  this  from  a  conviction  that  such 
measures  are  not  within  the  constitutional  pro- 
yinoe  of  the  general  goyemment;  and  yet  he 


has  made  a  recommendation  to  Congress  wfaidi 
appears  to  me  to  be  yeiy  remarkable,  and  it  is 
ca  a  measure  which  he  thinks  may  proye  a 
salutary  remedy  against  a  depreciated  paper 
currency.  This  measure  is  neither  more  nor 
less  than  a  bankrupt  law  against  corporations 
and  other  bankers. 

'^  Now,  Mr.  President,  it  is  certainly  true  that 
the  constitution  authorizes  Congress  to  establish 
uniform  rules  on  the  subject  of  bankruptcies; 
but  it  is  equally  true,  and  abundantiy  manifest, 
that  this  power  was  not  granted  with  any  refer- 
ence to  currency  questions.  It  is  a  general 
power — a  power  to  make  uniform  rules  on  the 
subject  How  is  it  possible  that  such  a  power 
can  be  fairly  exercised  by  seizing  on  corpora- 
tions and  bimkers,  but  excluding  all  the  other 
usual  subjects  of  bankrupt  laws !  Besides,  do 
such  laws  ordinarily  extend  to  corporations  at 
all  ?  But  suppose  they  might  be  so  extended, 
by  a  bankrupt  law  enacted  for  the  usual  pur- 
poses contemplated  by  such  laws;  how  can  a 
law  be  defended,  which  embraces  them  and 
bankers  alone  ?  I  should  like  to  hear  what  the 
learned  gentleman  at  the  head  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  to  whom  the  subiect  is  referred,  has 
to  say  upon  it  How  does  Ihe  President's  sug- 
gestion conform  to  his  notions  of  the  constitu- 
tion? The  object  of  bankrupt  laws,  sir,  has  no 
relation  to  currency.  It  is  simply  to  distribute 
the  e£fects  of  insolyent  debtors  among  their 
creditors ;  and  I  must  say,  it  strikes  me  that  it 
would  be  a  great  peryersion  of  the  power  con- 
ferred on  Congress  to  exercise  it  upon  corpora- 
tions and  bankers^  with  the  leading  and  primary 
object  of  remedymg  a  depreciated  paper  cur- 
rency. 

*^And  this  appears  the  more  extraordinary, 
inasmuch  as  the  President  is  of  opinion  that  the 
general  subject  of  the  currency  is  not  within 
our  province.  Bankruptcy,  in  its  common  and 
just  meanmg,  is  within  our  province.  Currency, 
says  the  message,  is  not  But  we  have  a  bank- 
ruptcy power  in  the  constitution,  and  we  will 
use  tibis  power^not  for  bankruptcy,  indeed,  but 
for  currency.  This,  I  confess,  sir,  appears  to  me 
to  be  the  short  statement  of  the  matter.  I  would 
not  do  the  message,  or  its  author,  any  intentional 
injustice,  nor  create  any  apparent^  where  there 
was  not  a  real  inconsistency ;  but  I  declare,  in 
all  smcerity,  that  I  cannot  reconcile  the  proposed 
use  of  the  bankrupt  power  with  those  opinions 
of  the  message  which  respect  the  authority  of 
Congress  Over  the  currency  of  the  country.'' 

The  right  to  use  this  remedy  against  bank- 
rupt corporations  was  of  course  well  considered 
by  the  President  before  he  recommended  it,  and 
also  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Mr. 
Woodbuiy),  bred  to  the  bar,  and  since  a  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  by 
whom  it  had  been  several  times  recommended. 
Doubtless  the  remedy  was  sancticaed  by  the 


ANNO  18S7.    HABTIN  YAK  BDREN,  PRESIDENT. 


45 


whole  oftbinet  before  it  became  a  subject  of  exe- 
ontiTe  recommendation.  Bat  tbe  objections  of 
Mr.  Webster,  though  rather  su^^ested  than 
urged,  and  confined  to  the  right  without  im- 
peaching the  expediency  of  the  remedy,  led  to  a 
fbll  examination  into  the  nature  and  olyects  of 
the  ]*WB  of  bankruptcy,  in  which  the  nc^t  to 
use  them  as  proposed  seemed  to  be  fully  yindi- 
Gated.  But  the  measure  was  not  then  pressed 
to  a  yote ;  and  the  oceasion  for  the  remedy  haT- 
ing  soon  passed  away,  and  not  recurring  since, 
the  question  has  not  been  reviy  ed.  But  the  im- 
portance of  the  remedy,  and  the  possilnlity  that 
it  may  be  wanted  at  some  future  time,  and  the 
hi£^  purpose  of  showing  that  the  constitution  is 
not  impotent  at  a  point  so  yita],  renders  it  pro- 
per to  present,  in  this  View  of  the  working  of 
the  government,  the  line  of  sigument  which  was 
then  satisfiu^ry  to  its  advocates :  and  this  is 
done  in  the  ensuing  chapter. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

BANKBUPT  ACT  FOB  BANKS:  MB.  BENTON^ 
BPBECH. 

The  power  of  Congress  to  pass  bankrupt  laws 
is  expressly  given  in  our  constitution,  and  given 
without  limitation  or  qualification.  It  is  the 
fourth  in  the  number  of  the  enumerated  powers, 
and  runs  thus:  " Congress  shall  have  power  to 
establish  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization,  and 
uniform  Uws  on  the  subject  of  bankruptcies 
throughout  the  United  States."  This  is  a  full 
and  clear  grant  of  power.  Upon  its  face  it  admits 
of  no  question,  and  leaves  Congress  at  fhll 
liberty  to  pass  any  kind  of  bankrupt  laws  they 
please,  limited  only  by  the  condition,  that  what- 
ever Ijkws  are  passed,  they  are  to  be  uniform  in 
their  operation  throughout  the  United  States. 
Upon  the  fiuse  of  our  own  constitution  there  is 
no  question  of  our  right  to  pass  a  bankrupt  law, 
limited  to  banks  and  bankers ;  but  the  senator 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Webstsb]  and  others 
who  have  spoken  on  the  same  side  with  him, 
must  carry  us  to  England,  and  conduct  us 
through  the  labyrinth  of  English  statute  law, 
and  through  the  chaos  of  English  judicial  de- 
cisions, to  leam  what  this  word  bankruptcies, 
In  our  constitntioa  is  hitended  to  signify.  In 
this  he^  and  they,  are  true  to  the  habits  oi  the 


legal  profession^-those  habits  which,  both  in 
Great  Britain  and  our  America,  have  become  a 
proverbial  disqualifioation  for  the  proper  ex- 
erdse  of  legislative  duties.  I  know,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident, that  it  is  the  fote  of  our  lawyers  and 
judges  to  have  to  run  to  British  law  books  to 
find  out  the  meaning  of  the  phrases  contained  in 
our  constitution;  but  it  is  the  business  of  the 
l^slator,  and  of  the  statesman,  to  take  a  laiger 
view — ^to  consider  the  difference  between  the 
political  institutions  of  the  two  countries— to 
ascend  to  first  principles— to  know  the  causes 
of  events— and  to  judge  how  fiu*  what  was  suit- 
able and  benefidai  to  one  might  be  prejudicial 
and  uu^plicable  to  the  other.  We  stand  here 
as  legislators  and  statesmen,  not  as  lawyers  and 
judges ;  we  have  a  grant  of  power  to  execute^ 
not  a  statute  to  interpret;  and  our  first  du^ 
is  to  look  to  that  grant, and  see  what  it  is;  and 
our  next  duty  is  to  look  over  omr  country,  and 
see  whether  there  is  any  thing  in  it  which  re- 
quires the  exerdse  of  that  grant  of  power.  This 
is  what  our  President  has  done,  and  what  we 
ought  to  dOb  He  has  looked  hito  the  constitu- 
tion, and  seen  there  an  unlimited  grant  of  power 
to  pass  unifonn  laws  on  the  subject  of  bank- 
ruptcies; and  he  has  looked  over  the  United 
States,  and  seen  what  he  believes  to  be  fit  sub- 
jects for  the  exercise  of  that  power,  namely, 
about  a  thousand  banks  in  a  state  of  bankrupted, 
and  no  State  possessed  of  authority  to  act  be- 
yond its  own  limits  in  remedying  the  evils  of  a 
mischief  so  vast  and  so  frig^tfuL  Seeing  these 
two  things— ft  power  to  act,  and  a  subject  matter 
requiring  action— -the  President  has  recom- 
mended the  action  which  the  constitution  per^ 
mits,  and  whidi  the  subject  requires ;  but  the 
senator  from  Massachusetts  has  risen  in  his 
place,  and  called  upon  us  to  shift  our  view;  to 
transfer  our  contemplation— ^from  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  to  the  British  statute 
book— fixnn  actual  bankruptcy  among  ourselves 
to  historical  bankruptcy  in  England;  and  to 
confine  our  logLslatian  to  the  charactmstics  of 
the  English  modeL 

As  a  general  proposition,  I  lay  it  down  that 
Congress  is  not  confined,  like  jurists  and  judges, 
to  the  English  statutory  definitions,  or  the  Nisi 
Prius  or  King's  Bench  construction  of  the 
phrases  known  to  English  legislation,  and  used 
in  our  constitution.  Such  a  limitation  would 
not  only  narrow  us  down  to  a  mere  lawyer's 


46 


THIRTT  YBARS'  VIEW. 


view  of  a  subject,  but  would  limit  us,  in  point 
of  time,  to  English  precedents,  as  they  stood  at 
the  adoption  of  our  constitution,  in  the  year 
1789.  I  protest  against  this  absurdity,  and  con- 
tend that  we  are  to  use  our  granted  powers  ao- 
oording  to  the  circumstances  of  our  own  coun- 
try, and  accordiug  to  the  genius  of  our  republican 
institutions,  and  according  to  the  progress  of 
events  and  the  expansion  of  light  and  knowledge 
among  ourselves.  If  not,  and  if  we  are  to  be 
confined  to  the  "  usual  objects,"  and  the  ^  usual 
subjects,"  and  the  "  usual  purposes,"  of  British 
legislation  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  our 
constitution,  how  could  Congress  ever  make  a 
law  in  relation  to  steamboats,  or  to  railroad 
cars,  both  of  which'  were  unknown  to  British 
legisUition  in  1789 ;  and  therefore,  according  to 
the  idea  that  would  send  us  to  England  to  find 
out  the  meaning  of  our  constitution,  would  not 
fidl  within  the  limits  of  our  legislative  authority. 
Upon  their  &ce,  the  words  of  the  constitution 
are  sufficient  to  justify  the  President's  recom- 
mendation, even  as  understood  by  those  who 
impugn  that  recommendation.  The  bankrupt 
clause  is  very  peculiar  in  its  phraseology,  and 
the  more  strikingly  so  from  its  contrast  with 
the  phraseology  of  the  naturalization  dause, 
which  is  coupled  with  it.  Mark  this  difference : 
there  is  to  be  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization : 
there  are  to  be  uniform  laws  on  the  subject- of 
bankruptcies.  One  is  in  the  singular,  the  other 
in  the  plural ;  one  is  to  be  a  rule,  the  other  are 
to  be  laws ;  one  acts  on  individuals,  the  other 
on  the  subject ;  and  it  is  bankruptcies  that  are, 
and  not  bankruptcy  that  is,  to  be  the  objects  of 
these  uniform  laws. 

As  a  proposition,  now  limited  to  this  particu- 
lar case,  I  lay  it  down  that  we  are  not  confined 
to  the  modem  English  acceptation  of  this  term 
bankrupt ;  for  it  is  a  term,  not  of  English,  but 
of  Roman  origin.  It  is  a  term  of  the  civil  law, 
and  borrowed  by  the  English  firom  that  code. 
They  borrowed  firom  Italy  both  the  name  and  the 
purpose  of  the  law ;  and  also  the  first  objects  to 
which  the  law  was  applicable.  The  English 
were  borrowers  of  every  thing  connected  with 
this  code ;  and  it  is  absurd  in  us  to  borrow  firom 
a  borrower — to  copy  firom  a  copyist — ^when  we 
have  the  original  lender  and  the  original  text 
before  us.  Bancua  and  ruptiu  signifies  a 
broken  bench;  and  the  word  broken  is  not 
metaphorical  but  literal,  and  is  descriptive  of 


the  ancient  method  of  cashiering  an  insolvent 
or  fWkudulent  banker,  by  turning  him  out  of  the 
exchange  or  market  place^  and  breaking  the 
table  bench  to  pieces  on  which  he  kept  his  money 
and  transacted  his  business.  The  term  bank- 
rupt, then,  in  the  civil  law  from  which  the  Eng- 
lish borrowed  it,  not  only  applied  to  bankers,  but 
was  confined  to  them ;  and  it  is  preposterous  in 
us  to  limit  ourselves  to  an  English  definition  of 
a  civil  law  term. 

Upon  this  exposition  of  our  own  constitution, 
and  of  the  civil  law  derivation  of  this  term 
bankrupt,  I  submit  that  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  is  not  limited  to  the  En^ish 
judicial  or  statutory  acceptation  of  the  term ; 
and  so  I  finish  the  first  point  which  I  took 
in  the  argument.  The  next  point  is  more 
comprehensive,  and  makes  a  direct  issue  with 
the  proposition  of  the  senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, [Mr.  Webster.]  His  proposition  ia, 
that  we  must  confine  our  bankrupt  legislation 
to  the  usual  objects,  the  usual  subjects,  and  the 
usual  purposes  of  bankrupt  laws  in  England ; 
and  that  currencr^  (meaning  paper  money  and 
shin-plasters  of  course),  and  banks,  and  bank- 
ing, are  not  within  the  scope  of  that  legislation. 
I  take  issue,  sir,  upon  all  these  points,  and  am 
ready  to  go  with  the  senator  to  England,  and  to 
contest  them,  one  by  one,  on  the  evidences  of 
English  history,  of  English  statute  law,  and  of 
English  judicial  decision.  I  say  English ;  for, 
although  the  senator  did  not  mention  England, 
yet  he  could  mean  nothing  else,  in  his  reference 
to  the  usual  objects,  usual  subjects,  and  usual 
purposes  of  bankrupt  laws.  He  could  mean 
nothing  else.  He  must  mean  the  English  exam- 
ples and  the  English  practice,  or  nothing ;  and 
he  is  not  a  person  to  speak,  and  mean  nothing. 

Protesting  against  this  voyage  across  the  high 
seas,  I  nevertheless  will  make  it,  and  will  ask 
the  senator  on  what  act,  out  of  the  scores  which 
Parliament  has  passed  upon  this  subject,  or  on 
what  period,  out  of  the  five  hundred  years  that 
she  has  been  l^islating  upon  it,  will  he  fix  for 
his  example?  Or,  whether  he  will  choose  to 
view  the  whole  together ;  and  out  of  the  vast 
chaotic  and  heterogeneous  mass,  extract  a 
general  power  which  Parliament  possesses,  and 
which  he  proposes  for  our  exemplar  ?  For  my- 
self^ I  am  agreed  to  consider  the  question  under 
the  whole  or  under  either  of  these  aspects,  and, 
relying  on  the  goodness  of  the  cause,  expect  a 


ANNO  1887.    HABTIN  VAN  BTTBEN.  PRESIDENT. 


47 


Bsfe  delirennoe  from  the  contest,  take  it  in  any 
way. 

And  first,  as  to  the  acts  passed  upon  this 
sabjeot ;  great  is  their  nnmber,  and  most  dis- 
similar their  provisions.  For  the  first  two 
hnndred  years,  these  acts  applied  to  none  but 
aliens,  and  a  single  class  of  aliens,  and  only  for 
a  single  act,  that  of  flying  the  reahn  to  avoid 
their  creditors.  Then  they  were  made  to  apply 
to  all  debtors,  whether  natives  or  foreigners, 
engird  in  trade  or  not,  and  took  effect  Ibr 
three  acts :  Ist,  flying  the  reahn ;  2d,  keeping 
the  house  to  avoid  creditors ;  3d,  taking  sanc- 
tuary in  a  church  to  avoid  arrest  For  upwards 
of  two  hundred  years — ^to  be  precise,  for  two 
hundred  and  twenty. years — ^bankruptcy  was 
only  treated  criminally,  and  directed  against 
those  who  would  not  face  their  creditors,  or 
abide  the  laws  of  the  land ;  and  the  remedies 
against  them  were  not  civil,  but  criminal;  it 
was  not  a  distribution  of  the  effects,  but  cor- 
poral punishment,  to  wit:  imprisonment  and 
outlawry.*  The  statute  of  Elizabeth  was  the 
first  that  confined  the  law  to  merchants  and 
traders,  took  in  the  unfortunate  as  well  as  the 
criminal,  extended  the  acts  of  bankruptcy  to  in- 
ability as  well  as  to  disinclination  to  pay,  dis- 
criminated between  innocent  and  fWiudulent 
bankruptcy;  and  gave  to  creditors  the  remedial 
right  to  a  distribution  of  effects.  This  statute 
opened  the  door  to  judicial  construction,  and  the 
Judges  went  to  work  to  define  by  decisions,  who 
were  traders,  and  what  acts  constituted  the 
fact,  or  showed  an  intent  to  delay  or  to  defraud 
creditors.  In  making  these  decisions,  the  judges 
reached  high  enough  to  get  hold  of  royal  com- 
panies, and  low  enough  to  get  hold  of  shoe- 
makers ;  the  latter  upon  the  ground  that  they 
bought  the  leather  out  of  which  they  made  the 
shoes ;  and  they  even  had  a  most  learned  con- 
sultation to  decide  whether  a  man  who  was 
a  landlord  for  dogs,  and  bought  dead  horses  for 
his  four-legged  boarders,  and  then  sold  the  skins 
and  bones  of  the  horse  carcases  he  had  bought, 

Preofnble  to  th$  ati  <tfZ4/h  qfBmna  vm. 
*  Whereas  direis  and  nindiy  penou  tntVUj  obtained  into 
fholr  hands  great  siibstanoe  of  other  mon's  goods,  do  snddonly 
flee  to  parts  unknown,  or  keep  ^eir  bonaeflt  not  minding  to 
pa7  or  restore  to  any  of  their  creditors,  their  debts  and  dnties, 
bat  at  their  own  wills  and  own  pleasnios  oonsame  the  sab- 
Btaaoe  obtained  hy  eredit  of  other  men  for  their  own  pleaaores 
and  delicate  liring,  against  all  reason,  equity,  and  good  oon- 


was  not  a  trader  within  the  meaning  of  the  act; 
and  so  subject  to  the  statute  of  bankrupts. 
These  decisions  of  the  judges  set  the  Parliament 
to  work  again  to  preclude  judicial  constructions 
by  the  precision,  negatively  and  affirmatively, 
of  legislative  enactment.  But,  worse  and  worse ! 
Out  oftheftyin^panmto  the  fire.  The  more 
legislation  the  more  construction;  the  more 
statutes  Parliament  made,  the  more  numerous 
and  the  more  various  the  judicial  decisions ; 
until,  besides  merchants  and  traders,  near  forty 
other  descriptions  of  persons  were  included ;  and 
the  catalogue  of  bankruptcy  acts,  innocent  or 
fraudulent,  is  swelled  to  a  length  which  requires 
whole  pages  to  contain  it  Among  those  who 
are  now  included  by  statutory  enactment  in 
England,  leaving  out  the  great  classes  compre- 
hended under  the  names  of  merchants  and 
traders,  are  bankers,  brokers,  factors,  and  scri- 
veners ;  insurers  against  perils  by  sea  and  land ; 
warehousemen,  wharfingers,  packers,  builder^ 
carpenters,  shipwrights  and  victuallers ;  keepers 
of  inns,  hotels,  taverns  uid  coffee-houses ;  dyers, 
printers,  bleachers,'  fullers,  calendrers,  sellers 
of  cattle  or  sheep ;  oommisswn  merchants  and 
consignees;  and  the  agents  of  all  these  classes. 
These  are  the  affirmative  definitions  of  the 
classes  liable  to  bankruptcy  in  England ;  then 
come  the  negative;  and  among  these  are  fu^ 
mers,  graziers,  and  common  laborers  for  hire ; 
the  receivers  general  of  the  king's  taxes,  and 
members  or  subscribers  to  any  incorporated 
companies  established  by  charter  of  act  of  Par^ 
liament.  And  among  these  negative  and  affirm- 
ative exclusions  and  inclusions,  there  are  many 
classes  which  have  repeatedly  changed  position, 
and  found  themselves  successively  in  and  out  of 
the  bankrupt  code^  Now,  in  all  this  mass  of 
variant  and  contradictory  legislation,  what  part 
of  it  will  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  select 
for  his  model?  The  improved,  and  approved 
parts,  to  be  sure !  But  here  a  barrier  presents 
itself— «n  impassable  wall  interposes—a  veto 
power  intervenes.  For  it  so  happens  that  the 
improvements  in  the  British  bankrupt  code, 
those  parts  of  it  which  are  considered  best,  and 
most  worthy  of  our  imitation,  are  of  modem 
origin — ^the  creations  of  the  last  fifty  years — 
actually  made  since  the  date  of  our  constitution ; 
and,  therefore,  not  withm  the  pale  of  its  purview 
and  meaning.  Yes,  sir,  made  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  our  constitution,  and,  therefore,  not 


48 


THIRTT  YEABS'  VIEW. 


to  be  included  within  its  contemplation ;  nnleBS 
this  doctrine  of  searching  into  British  statntes 
for  the  meaning  of  our  constitation,  is  to  make 
us  search  forwards  to  the  end  of  the  British  em- 
pire, as  well  as  search  backwards  to  its  begin- 
ning. Fact  is,  that  the  actual  bankrupt  code  of 
Great  Britain — the  one  that  preserves  all  that 
is  valuable,  that  consolidates  all  that  is  pre- 
served, and  improves  all  that  is  improvable,  is  an 
act  of  most  recent  date— of  the  reign  of  Geoige 
IV.,  and  not  jet  a  dozen  years  old.  Here^  then, 
in  going  back  to  England  for  a  model,  we  are 
cut  off  from  her  improvements  in  the  bankrupt 
oode^  and  confined  to  take  it  as  it  stood  imder 
the  reign  of  the  Plantagenets,  the  Tudors,  the 
Stuarts,  and  the  earlier  reigns  of  the  Brunswick 
sovereigns.  This  should  be  a  consideration,  and 
sufficiently  weighty  to  turn  the  scale  in  &vor 
of  looking  to  our  own  constitution  alone  fi)r  the 
extent  and  circumscription  of  our  powers. 

But  let  us  continue  tins  discussion  upon  prin- 
ciples of  British  example  and  British  legislation. 
We  must  go  to  England  for  one  of  two  things ; 
either  for  a  case  in  point,  to  be  found  in  some 
statute^  or  a  general  authority,  to  be  extracted 
from  a  general  practice.  Take  it  either  way,  or 
both  ways,  and  I  am  ready  and  able  to  vindicate, 
upon  British  precedents,  our  perfect  right  to  en- 
act a  bankrupt  law,  limited  in  its  a{^cation  to 
banks  and  bankers.  And  flrst^  for  a  case  in 
point,  that  is  to  say,  an  English  statute  of  bank- 
ruptcy, limited  to  these  lords  of  the  purse- 
strings  :  we  haTe  it  at  once,  in  the  first  act  ever 
passed  on  the  subject — ^the  act  of  the  30th 
year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  IIL,  against  the 
Lombard  Jews.  Erery  body  knows  that  these 
Jews  were  bankers,  usually  formed  into  compa- 
nies, who,  issuing  ilram  Venice^  Milan,  and  other 
parts  of  Italy,  spread  oyer  the  south  and  west 
of  Europe,  during  the  middle  ages ;  and  estab- 
lished themselves  in  every  country  and  city  in 
which  the  dawn  of  reviving  civilisation,  and  the 
germ  of  returning  industry,  gave  employment 
to  money,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  credit 
They  came  to  London  as  early  as  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  gave  their  name  to  a  street  which 
still  retains  it,  as  well  as  it  still  retains  the  par- 
ticular occupation,  and  the  peculiar  reputation, 
which  the  Lombard  Jews  established  for  it 
The  first  law  against  bankrupts  ever  passed  in 
England,  was  against  the  banking  company  com- 
poeed  of  these  JevrB,aad  confined  exclusively  to 


them.  It  remained  in  force  two  hundred  yeara^ 
without  any  alteration  whatever,  and  was  noth- 
ing but  the  application  of  the  law  of  their  own 
country  to  these  bankers  in  the  country  of  their 
sojournment— the  Italian  law,  founded  upon  the 
civil  law,  and  called  in  Italy  banco  ratto^  bro- 
ken bank.  It  is  in  direct  reference  to  these 
Jews,  and  this  application  of  the  exotic  bank- 
rupt law  to  them,  that  Sir  Edward  Coke,  in  his 
institutes,  takes  occasion  to  say  that  both  the 
name  and  the  wickedness  of  bankruptcy  were 
of  foreign  origin,  and  had  been  brought  into 
England  from  foreign  parts.  It  was  enacted 
under  the  reign  of  one  of  the  most  glorious  of 
the  English  princes — a  reign  as  much  distin- 
guished for  the  beneficence  of  its  dvil  adminis- 
tration as  for  the  splendor  of  its  military  achieve- 
ments. This  act  of  itself  is  a  full  answer  to  the 
whole  objection  taken  by  the  senator  from  Mas- 
sachusetts. It  shows  that,  even  in  England,  a 
bankrupt  law  has  been  confined  to  a  single  class 
of  persons,  and  that  class  a  banking  company. 
And  here  I  would  be  willing  to  dose  my  speedi 
upon  a  compromise — a  compromise  founded  in 
reason  and  redprodty,  and  invested  with  the 
equitable  mantle  of  a  mutual  concession.  It  is 
this :  if  we  must  follow  English  precedents,  let 
us  foUow  them  chronologically  and  orderly. 
Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning,  and  take  them  as 
they  rise.  Give  me  a  bankrupt  law  for  two 
hundred  years  against  banks  and  bankers ;  and, 
after  that,  make  another  for  merchants  and 
traders. 

The  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Wsb- 
btxa]  has  emphatically  demanded,  how  the 
bankrupt  power  could  be  fairly  exercised  by 
seizing  on  corporations  and  bankers,  and  ex- 
duding  all  the  other  usual  subjects  of  bankrupt 
laws  ?  I  answer,  by  following  the  example  of 
that  England  to  which  he  has  conducted  us  ; 
by  copying  the  act  of  the  30th  of  Edward 
in. ;  by  going  back  to  that  reign  of  heroism, 
patriotism,  and  wisdom  5  that  reign  in  which  the 
monardi  acquired  as  much  glory  from  his  do- 
mestic policy  as  from  his  foreign  conquests  ; 
that  reign  in  which  the  acquisition  of  dyers  and 
weayers  fix>m  Flanders,  the  observance  of  lavr 
and  justice,  and  the  encouragement  given  to  ag- 
riculture and  manufactures,  conferred  more  bene- 
fit upon  the  kingdom,  and  more  gloiy  upon  the 
king,  than  the  splendid  yictories  of  Poictiera^ 
Aginoourt,  and  Creasy. 


ANNO  1887.    MABTIN  YAK  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


49 


But  the  senator  may  not  be  willing  to  yield 
to  this  example,  this  case  in  point,  drawn  from 
his  own  fountain,  and  preoisely  fip  to  the  exi- 
gency <»f  the  occasion.  He  may  want  something 
more ;  and  he  shall  haTe  it.  I  will  now  take  the 
question  upon  its  broadest  bottom  and  fullest 
merits.  I  will  go  to  the  question  of  general 
power — ^the  point  of  general  authority— exem- 
plified by  the  general  practice  of  the  British  Par^ 
liament,  for  five  hundred  years^  over  the  whole 
subject  of  bankruptcy.  I  will  try  the  question 
upon  this  basis ;  and  here  I  lay  down  the  pro- 
position, that  this  fiye  hundred  years  of  pariia- 
mentary  legislation  on  bankruptcy  establishes 
the  point  of  Aill  authority  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment to  act  as  it  pleased  on  the  entire  subject 
of  bankruptcies.  This  is  my  proposition ;  and, 
when  it  is  proved,  I  shall  claim  from  those  who 
cany  me  to  England  for  authority,  the  same 
amount  of  power  over  the  subject  which  the 
British  Parliament  has  been  in  the  habit  of  ex- 
ercising. Now,  what  is  the  extent  of  that 
power  9  Happily  for  me,  I,  who  have  to  speak, 
without  any  inclination  for  the  task ;  still  more 
happily  for  those  who  have  to  hear  ine,  perad- 
venture  without  profit  or  pleasure ;  happily  for 
both  parties,  my  proposition  is  already  proved, 
partly  by  what  I  hare  previously  advanced,  and 
fully  by  what  every  senator  knows.  I  have  al- 
ready shown  the  practice  of  Parliament  npoa 
this  subject,  that  it  has  altered  and  changed, 
contracted  and  enlarged,  put  in  and  left  out, 
abolished  and  created,  precisely  as  it  pleased.  I 
have  already  shown,  in  my  n^id  view  of  Eng- 
lish legislation  on  tins  subject,  that  the  Parlia- 
ment exercised  plenaiy  power  and  unlimited 
authortty  over  every  branch  of  the  bankrupt 
question;  that  it  confined  the  action  of  the 
bankrupt  laws  to  a  single  class  of  persons,  or 
extended  it  to  many  classes  3  that  it  was  some- 
times ocmfined  to  foreigners,  then  applied  to  nsr 
tives,  and  that  now  it  oompiehends  natives^ 
alliens,  denizens,  and  women ;  that  at  one  time 
all  debtors  were  subject  tp  it ;  then  none  but 
merchants  and  traders ;  and  now,  besides  mer- 
chants and  traders,  a  long  list  of  persons  who 
have  notlung  to  do  with  trade ;  that  at  one  time 
bankruptcy  was  treated  criminally,  and  its  ob- 
ject punished  aurporeally,  while  now  it  is  a  re- 
medial measure  for  the  benefit  of  the  creditors, 
and  the  relief  of  unfortunate  debtors ;  and  that 
the  acts  of  the  debtor  which  may  constitute  him 
Vol.  II.— 4 


a  bankrupt,  have  been  enlarged  fitnn  three  or 
four  glaring  misdeeds,  to  so  long  a  catalogue  of 
actions,  divided  into  the  heads  of  innocent  and 
fraudulent ;  constructive  and  positive ;  inten- 
tional and  unintentional ;  voluntary  and  forced ; 
that  none  but  an  attorney,  with  book  in  hand, 
can  pretend  to  enumerate  them.  All  this  has 
been  shown ;  and,  from  all  this,  it  is  incontest- 
able that  Parliament  can  do  just  what  it  pleases 
on  the  subject ;  and,  therefore,  our  Congress,  if 
referred  to  England  for  its  powers,  can  do  just 
what  it  pleases  also.  And  thus,  whether  we  go 
by  the  words  of  our  own  constitation,  or  by  a 
particular  example  in  England,  or  deduce  a  gen- 
eral authority  from  the  general  practice  of  that 
country,  the  result  is  still  the  same :  we  have 
authority  to  limit,  if  we  please,  our  bankrupt 
law  to  the  single  class  of  banks  and  bankers. 

The  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Web- 
ster] demands  whether  bankrupt  laws  orduta- 
rily  extend  to  corporations,  meaning  moneyed 
corporations.  I  am  five  to  answer  that,  in  point 
of  fact)  they  do  not  But  why  ?  because  they 
ought  not  ?  or  because  these  corporations  have 
yet  been  powerful  enough,  or  fortunate  enough, 
to  keep  their  necks  out  of  that  noose  ?  Oer^ 
tamly  the  latter.  It  is  the  power  of  these  mo- 
neyed corporations  in  England,  and  their  good 
fortune  in  our  America,  which,  enabling  them  to 
grasp  all  advantages  on  one  hand,  and  to  repulse 
all  penalties  on  the  other,  has  enabled  them  to 
obtain  express  statutory  exemption  from  bank- 
rupt liabilities  in  England;  and  to  escape,  thus 
fiu-,  fi^m  similar  liabilities  in  the  United  States. 
This,  sir,  is  history,  and  not  invective;  it  is 
fiust,  and  not  assertion  $  and  I  will  speedily  re- 
fresh the  senator's  memory,  and  bring  him  to 
recollect  why  it  is,  in  point  of  fiict,  that  bank- 
rupt laws  do  not  usually  extend  to  these  corpo- 
rations. And,  first,  let  us  look  to  England, 
that  great  exemplar,  whose  evil  examples  we 
are  so  prompt,  whose  good  ones  we  are  so  slow, 
to  imitate.  How  stands  this  question  of  corpo- 
ration unliability  there  ?  By  the  judicial  con- 
struction of  the  statute  of  Elizabeth,  the  part- 
ners in  all  incorporated  companies  were  held 
subject  to  the  bankrupt  law ;  and,  under  this 
construction,  a  commission  of  bankrupt  was 
issued  against  Sir  John  Wolstenholme,  a  gen- 
tieman  of  large  fortune,  who  had  advanced  a  sum 
of  money  on  an  adventure  in  the  East  India 
Company's  trade.    The  issue  of  this  commission 


60 


THIRTY  TEAES'  VIEW. 


was  affirmed  by  the  Court  of  Kiog's  Bench; 
but  this  happened  to  take  place  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II. — that  reign  during  which  so 
little  IB  found  worthy  of  imitation  in  the  goy- 
emment  of  Great  Britain — and  inunediately  two 
acts  of  Parliament  were  passed,  one  to  annul 
the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  in 
the  case  of  Sir  John  Wolstenholme,  and  the 
other  to  prevent  any  such  judgments  from  being 
given  in  future.  Here  are  copies  of  the  two 
acts: 

FIRST  ACT,  TO  ANNUL  THE  JUDGMENT. 

^  Whereas  a  verdict  and  judgment  was  had  in 
the  Easter  term  of  the  King's  Bench,  whereby 
Sir  John  Wolstenholme,  kn^ht,  and  adventurer 
in  the  East  India  Company,  was  found  liable  to 
a  commission  of  bankrupt  only  for,  and  by  rea- 
son of,  a  share  which  he  had  in  the  joint  stock 
of  said  company :  Now,  &c..  Be  it  enacted,  That 
the  said  judgment  be  reversed,  annulled,  vacated, 
and  for  naught  held,"  &c 

SECOND   ACT,  TO   PREVENT   SUCH   JUDGMENTS  IN 
FUTURE. 

^  That  whereas  divers  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men, and  persons  of  quality,  no  ways  bred  up 
to  trade,  do  often  put  m  great  stocks  of  mone^ 
into  the  East  India  and  Guinea  Company :  Be  it 
enacted,  That  no  persons  adventurers  for  put- 
ting in  money  or  merchandise  into  the  said  com- 
panies, or  for  venturing  or  managing  the  fishing 
trade,  called  the  royal  fishing  trade,  shall  be  re- 
puted or  taken  to  be  a  merchant  or  trader  within 
any  statutes  fi>r  bankrupts." 

Thus,  and  for  these  reasons,  were  chartered 
companies  and  their  members  exempted  firom 
the  bankrupt  penalties,  under  the  dissolute 
reign  of  Charles  n.  It  was  not  the  power 
of  the  corporations  at  that  time — for  the  Bank 
of  England  was  not  then  chartered,  and  the 
East  India  Company  had  not  then  conquered 
India — ^which  occasioned  this  exemption ;  but  it 
was  to  &vor  the  dignified  characters  who  en- 
gaged in  the  trade — ^noblemen,  gentlemen,  and 
persons  of  quality.  But,  afterwards,  when  the 
Bank  of  England  had  become  almost  the  gov- 
ernment of  England,  and  when  the  East  India 
Company  had  acquired  the  dominions  of  the 
Great  Mogul,  an  act  of  Parliament  expressly 
declared  that  no  member  of  any  incorporated 
oompany,  diarteied  by  act  of  Parliament,  should 
be  liable  to  become  bankrupt  This  act  was 
passed  in  the  reign  of  George  IV.,  when  the 
Wellington  ministry  was  in  power,  and  when 
libenl  prindples  and  human  rights  were  at 


the  last  gasp.  So  much  for  these  oorpon- 
tion  exemptions  in  England ;  and  if  the  senator 
from  Massaclnsetts  finds  any  thing  in  such  in- 
stances worthy  of  imitation,  let  him  stand  forth 
and  proclaim  it. 

But,  sir,  I  am  not  yet  done  with  my  answer 
to  this  question ;  do  such  laws  ordinarily  extend 
to  corporations  at  all  ?  I  answer,  most  decided- 
ly, that  they  do !  that  they  apply  in  England  to 
all  the  corporations,  except  those  specially  ex- 
cepted by  the  act  of  George  lY. ;  and  these 
are  few  in  number,  though  great  in  power 
— ^powerful,  but  few—nothing  but  units  to  mj- 
riads,  compared  to  those  which  are  not  excepted. 
The  words  of  that  act  are :  ^  Members  o^  or 
subscribers  to,  any  incorporated  commercial  or 
trading  companies,  established  by  charter  act 
of  Parliament"  These  words  cut  off  at  onoe 
the  many  ten  thousand  corporations  in  the 
British  empire  existing  by  prescription,  or  in- 
corporated by  letters  patent  from  the  king; 
and  then  they  cut  off  all  those  even  chartered 
by  act  of  Parliament  which  are  not  commercial 
or  trading  in  their  nature.  This  saves  but  i 
few  out  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  corpo- 
rations which  abound  in  England,  Scotland, 
Wales,  and  Ireland.  It  saves,  of  rather  cos- 
firms,  the  exemption  of  the  Bank  of  England, 
which  is  a  trader  in  money;  and  it  confirms, 
also,  the  exemption  of  the  East  India  Company, 
which  is,  in  contemplation  of  law  at  least,  a 
commercial  company ;  and  it  saves  or  exempts 
a  few  others  deriving  charters  of  incorporation 
from  Parliament;  but  it  leaves  subject  to  the 
law  the  whole  wilderness  of  corporations,  of 
which  there  are  thousands  in  London  alone, 
wluch  derive  from  prescription  or  letters  patent; 
and  it  also  leaves  subject  to  the  same  laws  all 
the  corporations  created  by  charter  act  of  Pa^ 
liament)  which  are  not  commercial  or  tradiog> 
The  words  of  the  act  are  very  peculiar— "  cha^ 
ter  act  of  Parliament;"  so  that  corporationB 
by  a  general  law,  without  a  special  charter  act^ 
are  not  included  in  the  exemption.  This  an- 
swer, added  to  what  has  been  previously  said, 
must  be  a  sufBdent  reply  to  the  senator's  ques- 
tion, whether  bankrupt  laws  ordinarily  extend 
to  corporations  ?  Sir,  out  of  the  myriad  of  oo^ 
porations  in  Great  Britain,  the  bankrupt  law 
extends  to  the  whole,  except  some  half  dosen 
or  dozen. 

So  much  for  the  exemption  of  these  corpora'- 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


51 


tioos  in  England ;  now  for  oar  America.  We 
never  had  but  one  bankrupt  law  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  for  the  short  period  of  three  or 
four  years.  It  was  passed  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  elder  Mr.  Adams,  and  repealed 
under  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  copied  the  English  acts 
including  among  the  subjects  of  bankruptcy, 
bankers,  brokers,  and  ftctors.  Corporations 
were  not  included ;  and  it  is  probable  that  no 
question  was  raised  about  them,  as,  up  to  that 
tune,  their  number  was  few,  and  their  conduct 
generally  good.  But,  at  a  later  date,  the  enact- 
ment of  a  bankrupt  law  was  again  attempted  in 
our  Congress ;  and,  at  that  period,  the  multipli- 
cation and  the  misconduct  of  banks  presented 
them  to  the  minds  of  many  as  proper  subjects 
for  the  application  of  the  law ;  I  speak  of  the 
bill  of  1827,  brought  into  the  Senate,  and  lost. 
That  bill,  like  all  previous  laws  since  the  time 
of  George  II.,  was  made  i^plicable  to  bankers, 
brokers,  and  factors.  A  senator  from  North 
Carolina  [Mr.  Branch]  moved  to  include  bank- 
ing corporations.  The  motion  was  lost,  there 
being  but  twelve  votes  for  it ;  but  in  this  twelve 
there  were  some  whose  names  must  carry  weight 
to  any  cause  to  which  they  dre  attached.  The 
twelve  were,  Messrs.  Barton,  Benton,  Branch, 
Cobb,  Dickerson,  Hendricks,  Macon,  Noble,  Ran- 
dolph, Reed,  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  and  White. 
The  whole  of  the  friends  of  the  bill,  twenty-one 
in  number,  voted  against  the  proposition,  (the 
present  Chief  Magistrate  in  the  number,)  and 
for  the  obvious  reason,  with  some,  of  not  encum- 
bering the  measure  they  were  so  anxious  to 
carry,  by  putting  into  it  a  new  and  untried  pro- 
vision. And  thus  stands  our  own  legislation  on 
this  subject.  In  point  of  fiH,  then,  chartered 
corporations  have  thus  far  escaped  bankrupt 
penalties,  both  in  England,  and  in  our  America ; 
but  ought  they  to  continue  to  escape  1  This  is 
the  question — this  the  true  and  important  in- 
quiry, which  is  now  to  occupy  the  public  mind. 
The  senator  tcom  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Web- 
ster] says  the  object  of  bankrupt  laws  has  no 
relation  to  currency ',  that  their  object  is  sim- 
ply to  distribute  the  effects  of  insolvent  debtors 
among  their  creditors.  So  says  the  senator,  but 
what  says  history  ?  What  says  the  practice  of 
Great  Britain  1  I  will  show  you  what  it  says, 
and  for  that  purpose  will  read  a  passage  from 
McCulloch's  notes  on  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations. 
He  says : 


«In  1814-'15,  and  '16,  no  fewer  than  240 
country  banks  stopped  payment,  and  ninety-two 
commissions  of  bankruptcy  were  issued  against 
these  establishments,  being  at  the  rate  of  one 
commission  against  every  seven  and  a  half  of 
the  total  number  of  country  banks  ezistine  in 
1813."  ^ 

Two  hundred  and  forty  stopped  payment  at 
one  dash,  and  ninety-two  subjected  to  commis- 
sions of  bankruptcy.  They  were  not  indeed 
chartered  banks,  for  there  are  none  such  in  Eng- 
land, except  the  Bank  of  England ;  but  they 
were  legalized  establishments,  existing  under  the 
first  joint-stock  bank  act  of  1708 ;  and  they  were 
banks  of  issue.  Tet  they  were  subjected  to  the 
bankrupt  laws,  ninety-two  of  them  in  a  single 
season  of  bank  catalepsy ;  their  broken  ^  prom- 
ises to  pay  "  were  taken  out  of  circulation ;  their 
doors  closed ;  their  directors  and  officers  turned 
out ;  their  whole  effects,  real  and  personal,  their 
money,  debts,  books,  paper,  and  every  thing,  put 
into  the  hands  of  assignees ;  and  to  these  as- 
signees, the  holders  of  theur  notes  forwarded 
their  demands,  and  were  paid,  every  one  in 
equal  proportion — as  the  debts  of  the  bank  were 
collected,  and  its  effects  converted  into  money ; 
and  this  without  expense  or  trouble  to  any  one 
of  them.  Ninety-two  banks  in  England  shared 
this  fate  in  a  single  season  of  bank  mortality ; 
five  hundred  more  could  be  enumerated  in  other 
seasons,  many  of  them  superior  in  real  capital, 
credit,  and  circulation,  to  our  fiunous  chartered 
banks,  most  of  which  are  banks  of  moonshine^ 
built  upon  each  other's  paper ;  and  the  whole 
ready  to  fly  sky-high  the  moment  any  one  of 
the  concern  becomes  sufficiently  inflated  to 
burst  The  immediate  effect  of  this  application 
of  the  bankrupt  laws  to  banks  in  England,  is 
two-fold:  first)  to  save  the  general  currency 
frtnn  depreciation,  by  stopping  the  issue  and 
circulation  of  irredeemable  notes ;  secondly,  to 
do  equal  justice  to  all  creditors,  hig^  and  low, 
rich  and  poor,  present  and  absent,  the  widow 
and  the  orphan,  as  well  as  the  cunning  and  the 
powerful,  by  distributing  their  effects  in  propor- 
tionate amounts  to  all  who  hold  demands.  This 
is  the  operation  of  bankrupt  laws  upon  banks  in 
England,  and  all  over  the  British  empire ;  and  it 
happens  to  be  the  precise  check  upon  the  issue 
of  broken  bank  paper,  and  the  precise  reme<^ 
for  the  injured  holders  of  their  dishonored  paper 
which  the  President  recommends.  Here  is  his 
recommendation,  liBten  to  it : 


62 


THmxr  YEARS'  VIEW. 


"  In  the  mean  time,  it  is  our  duty  to  proTide 
ftU  the  remedies  against  a  depreciated  paper  cur- 
rency which  the  constitution  enables  us  to  af- 
ford. The  Treasury  Department  on  seyeral 
former  occasions,  has  suggested  the  propriety 
and  hnportanoe  of  a  uniform  law  concerning 
bankruptcies  of  corporations  and  other  bankers. 
Through  the  instrumentality  of  such  a  law,  a 
saluta^  check  may  doubtless  be  imposed  on  the 
issues  of  paper  money,  and  an  effectual  remedy 
given  to  the  citizen,  in  a  way  at  once  equal  in 
all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  fiilly  authorized  by 
the  constitution." 

The  senator  from  Massachusetts  says  he 
would  not,  intentionally,  do  injustice  to  the  mes- 
sage or  its  author ;  and  doubtless  he  is  not  con- 
scions  of  violatmg  that  benevolent  determina- 
tion ;  but  here  is  injustice,  both  to  the  message 
and  to  its  author ;  injustice  in  not  quoting  the 
message  as  it  is,  and  showing  that  it  proposes  a 
remedy  to  the  dlizen,  as  well  as  a  chedc  upon 
insolyent  issues ;  injustice  to  the  author  in  de- 
nying that  the  object  of  bankrupt  laws  has  any 
reUtion  to  currency,  when  history  shows  that 
these  laws  are  the  actual  instrument  for  regula- 
ting and  purifying  the  whole  local  paper  curren- 
cy of  the  entire  British  empire,  and  saying  that 
country  from  the  frmids,  losses,  impositions, 
and  demoralization  of  an  irredeemable  paper 
money. 

The  senator  from  Massachusetts  says  the  ob- 
ject of  bankrupt  laws  has  no  relation  to  curren- 
cy. If  he  means  hard-money  currency,  I  agree 
with  him;  but  if  he  means  bank  notes,  as  I  am 
sure  he  does,  then  I  point  him  to  the  British 
bankrupt  code,  which  applies  to  every  bank  of 
iasne  in  the  British  empire,  except  the  Bank  of 
England  itself  and  the  few  others,  four  or  five 
In  number,  which  are  incorporated  by  charter 
acts.  All  the  joint^tock  banks,  all  the  private 
banks,  all  the  bankers  of  England,  Scothnd, 
Wales,  and  Ireland,  are  subject  to  the  law  of 
bankruptcy.  Many  of  these  establishments  are 
of  great  capital  and  credit ;  some  having  hun- 
dreds, or  even  thousands  of  partners;  andmany 
of  them  having  ten,  or  twenty,  or  thirty,  and 
aome  even  forty  branches.  They  are  afanost  the 
ezdnsive  fhmishers  of  the  local  and  common 
bank  note  currency ;  the  Bank  of  England  notes 
being  chiefly  used  in  the  great  cities  lor  large 
mevoantile  and  Government  payments.  These 
Joint«toek  banks,  private  companies,  and  indi- 
▼idoal  bankers  are,  practically,  in  the  British 
empire  what  the  local  banks  are  in  the  United 


States.  They  perform  the  same  fhnctions,  and 
differ  in  name  only;  not  in  substance  nor  in 
conduct.  They  have  no  charters,  but  they  have 
a  legalized  existence ;  they  are  not  corporations, 
but  they  are  allowed  by  law  to  act  in  a  body; 
they  funiish  the  actual  paper  currency  of  the 
great  body  of  the  people  of  the  British  empire, 
as  much  so  as  our  local  banks  furnish  the  mass 
of  paper  currency  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  They  have  had  twenty-four  millions 
sterling  (one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of 
dollars)  in  circulation  at  one  time ;  a  sum  near- 
ly equal  to  the  greatest  issue  ever  known  in  the 
United  States;  and  more  than  equal  to  the  whole 
bank-note  circulation  of  the  present  day.  They 
are  all  subject  to  the  law  of  bankruptcy,  and 
their  twenty-four  millions  sterling  of  currency 
along  with  them;  and  five  hundred  of  them 
have  been,  shut  up  and  wound  up  under  com- 
missions of  bankruptcy  in  the  last  forty  years ; 
and  yet  the  senator  frt)m  Massachusetts  informs 
us  that  the  object  of  bankrupt  laws  has  no  rela- 
tion to  currency! 

But  it  IB  not  necessary  to  go  all  the  way  to 
England  to  find  bankrupt  laws  having  relation 
to  currency.  The  act  passed  in  our  own  coun- 
try, about  forty  years  ago,  applied  to  bankers ; 
the  bill  brought  into  the  House  of  Bepresenta- 
tives,  about  fifteen  years  ago,  by  a  gentleman 
then,  and  now,  a  representative  from  the  dty 
of  Philadelphia,  [Mr.  Sxbgeamt,]  also  applied 
to  bankers ;  and  the  bill  brought  into  this  Sen- 
ate, ten  years  ago,  by  a  senator  fixmi  South 
Carolina,  not  now  a  member  of  this  body, 
[Qeneral  Hatn£,]  still  applied  to  bankers. 
These  bankers,  of  whom  there  were  many  in  the 
United  States,  and  of  whom  Girard,  in  the 
East,  and  Teatman  and  Woods,  in  the  West, 
were  the  most  considerable — these  bankers  all 
issued  paper  money ;  they  all  issued  currency. 
The  act,  then,  of  1798,  if  it  had  continued  in 
foroe^  or  the  two  bills  just  referred  to,  if  they 
had  become  law,  would  have  operated  upon 
these  bankers  and  iheir  banks— would  have 
stopped  their  issues,  and  put  their  establish- 
ments into  the  hands  of  assignees,  and  distrib- 
uted their  effects  among  their  creditors.  Thig, 
certainly,  would  have  been  having  some  rela- 
tion to  currency:  so  that,  even  with  our  limited 
essays  towards  a  bankrupt  system,  we  haye 
scaled  the  outworks  of  the  banking  empire ;  we 
have  laid  hold  of  bankers,  but  not  ai  banks 


ANNO  188Y.    MASTDT  VAN  BUREN,  PBEBIDEMT. 


63 


we  haye  readied  the  bank  of  Girard,  but  not 
the  Qirard  Bank ;  we  haye  applied  our  law  to 
the  bank  of  Teatman  and  WoodB,  bnt  not  to 
the  rabble  of  pettj  corporations  which  hare  not 
the  tithe  of  their  capital  and  credit  We  have 
gone  as  far  as  bankers,  but  not  as  fiur  as  banks ; 
and  now  give  me  a  reason  for  the  difference. 
Give  me  a  reason  why  the  act  of  1798,  the  bill 
of  Mr.  Sesozaht,  in  1821,  and  the  bill  of  Gen- 
eral HiTNE,  in  1827,  should  not  include  banks 
as  well  as  bankers.  They  both  peiferm  the 
same  ftmction — that  of  issuing  paper  currency. 
They  both  inTolye  the  same  mischief  when 
they  stop  payment— -that  of  afflicting  the 'coun- 
try with  a  circulation  of  irredeemable  and  de- 
preciated paper  money.  They  are  both  culpa- 
ble in  the  same  mode,  and  in  the  same  degree ; 
for  they  are  both  violators  of  their  ^  promises 
to  pay."  They  both  exact  a  general  credit 
from  the  community,  and  they  both  abuse  that 
credit  They  both  have  creditors,  and  they 
both  have  effects  f  and  these  creditors  have  as 
much  ri^t  to  a  pro  Tata  distribution  of  the 
effects  in  one  case  as  in  the  other.  Why,  then, 
a  distinction  in  favor  of  the  bank  ?  Is  it  be- 
cause corporate  bodies  are  superior  to  natural 
bodies?  because  artificial  beings  are  superior 
to  natural  beings  ?  or,  rather,  is  it  not  because 
corporations  are  assemblages  of  men ;  and  as- 
semblages are  more  powerful  than  smgle  men ; 
and,  thereibre,  these  corporations,  in  addition 
to  all  their  vast  privileges,  are  also  to  have  tfie 
privilege  (^  benig  bankrupt,  and  afHicting  the 
country  with  the  evils  of  bankruptcy,  without 
themselves  bmg  subjected  to  the  laws  of  bank- 
ruptcy? Be  this  as  it  may — be  the  cause  what 
it  will — ^the  decree  has  gone  forth  fbr  the  deci- 
sion of  the  question — ^for  the  trial  of  the  issue 
— for  the  verdict  and  judgment  upon  the  claim 
of  the  banks.  They  have  many  privileges  and 
exemptions  now,  and  they  have  the  benefit  of 
all  laws  against  the  community.  They  pay  no 
taxes ;  the  property  of  the  stockholders  is  not 
liable  for  their  debts ;  they  sue  their  debtors, 
sell  their  property,  and  put  their  bodies  in  jaiL 
They  have  the  privilege  (^  stamping  paper 
money  \  the  privil^e  of  taking  interest  upon 
double,  treble,  and  quadruple  their  actual 
money.  They  put  up  and  put  down  the  price 
of  property,  labor,  and  produce,  as  they  please. 
They  have  the  monopoly  of  making  the  actual 
oarrenc^.    They  are  strong  enough  to  suppress 


the  constitutional  money,  and  to  force  their 
own  paper  upon  the  oommtmity,  and  then  to 
redeem  it  or  not,  as  they  please.  And  is  it  to 
be  tolerated,  that^  in  addition  to  aU  these  priv- 
ileges, and  all  tiiese  powers,  they  are  to  be 
exempted  firom  the  law  of  bankruptcy?  the 
only  law  of  which  they  are  afirud,  and  the  only 
one  which  can  protect  the  country  against 
their  insolvent  issues,  and  give  a  fair  chance  for 
payment  to  the  numerous  holders  of  their  vio- 
lated ^  promises  to  pay  I " 

I  have  discussed,  Mr.  President,  the  right  of 
Congress  to  apply  a  bankrupt  law  to  banking 
corporations ;  I  have  discussed  it  on  the  words 
of  our  own  constitution,  on  the  practice  of 
England,  and  on  the  general  authority  of  Par- 
liament; and  on  each  and  every  ground,  as  I 
fliUy  believe,  vindicated  our  right  to  pass  the 
law.  The  right  is  clear ;  the  expediency  is  mani- 
fest and  glaring.  Of  all  the  objects  upon  the 
earth,  banks  of  circulation  are  the  fittest  sub- 
jects of  bankrupt  laws.  They  act  in  secret^ 
and  they  exact  a  general  credit  Nobody 
knows  their  means,  yet  every  body  must  trust 
them.  They  send  their  "  promises  to  pay  "  fer 
and  near.  They  push  them  into  every  body's 
hands ;  they  make  them  small  to  go  into  small 
hands — into  the  hands  of  the  laborer,  the 
widow,  the  helpless,  the  ignorant  Suddenly 
the  bank  stops  payment;  all  these  helpless 
h<dders  of  their  notes  are  without  pay,  and 
without  remedy.  A  few  on  the  spot  get  a  lit- 
tle ;  those  at  a  distance  get  nothing.  For  each 
to  sue,  is  a  vexatious  and  a  losing  business. 
The  only  adequate  remedy — the  only  one  that 
promises  any  justice  to  the  body  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  helpless  holders  of  small  notes 
— ^is  the  bankrupt  remedy  of  assignees  to  dis- 
tribute the  effects.  This  makes  the  real  effects 
available.  When  a  bank  stops,  it  has  littie  or 
no  specie ;  but  it  has,  or  ought  to  have,  a  good 
mass  of  solvent  debts.  At  present,  all  these 
debts  are  unavailable  to  the  community — ^they 
go  to  a  few  large  and  &vored  creditors;  aiKl 
those  who  are  most  in  need  get  nothing.  But 
a  stronger  view  remains  to  be  taken  of  these 
debts :  the  mass  of  them  are  due  from  the  own- 
ers and  managers  of  the  banks — firom  the  pres- 
idents, directors,  cashiers,  stockholders,  attor- 
neys; and  these  people  do  not  make  them- 
selves pay.  They  do  not  sue  themselves,  nor 
protest   themselves.     They  sue   and   protest 


54 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


others,  and  sell  out  their  property,  and  put 
their  bodies  in  jail;  but,  as  for  themselyes, 
who  are  the  main  debtors,  it  is  another  afbir ! 
They  take  their  time,  and  usually  wait  till  the 
notes  are  heayily  depreciated,  and  then  square 
off  with  a  few  cents  in  the  dollar !  A  commis- 
sion of  bankruptcy  is  the  remedy  for  this  evil ; 
assignees  of  the  effects  of  the  bank  are  the  per^ 
sons  to  make  these  owners,  and  managers,  and 
chief  debtors  to  the  institutions,  pay  up.  Un- 
der the  bankrupt  law,  every  holder  of  a  note, 
no  matter  how  small  in  amount,  nor  how  dis- 
tant the  holder  may  reside,  on  forwarding  the 
note  to  the  assignees,  will  receive  his  ratable 
proportion  of  the  bank's  effects,  without  ex*^ 
pense,  and  without  trouble  to  himself.  It  is  a 
most  potent,  a  most  proper,  and  most  constitu- 
tional remedy  against  delinquent  banks.  It  is 
an  equitable  and  a  brave  remedy.  It  does 
honor  to  the  President  who  recommended  it, 
and  is  worthy  of  the  successor  of  Jackson. 

Senators  upon  this  floor  have  ventured  the 
expression  of  an  opinion  that  there  can  be  no 
resumption  of  specie  payments  in  this  country 
until  a  national  bank  shall  be  established,  mean- 
ing, all  the  while,  until  the  present  miscalled 
Bank  of  the  United  States  shall  be  rechartered. 
Such  an  opinion  is  humiliating  to  this  govern- 
ment, and  a  reproach  upon  the  memory  of  its 
founders.  It  is  tantamount  to  a  declaration 
that  the  government,  framed  by  the  heroes  and 
sages  of  the  Revolution,  is  incapable  of  self- 
preservation  $  that  it  is  a  miserable  image  of 
imbecility,  and  must  take  refiige  in  the  embraces 
of  a  moneyed  corporation,  to  enable  it  to  sur- 
vive its  infirmities.  The  humiliation  of  such  a 
thought  should  expel  it  from  the  imagination 
of  every  patriotic  mind.  Nothing  but  a  dire 
necessity — a  last,  a  sole,  an  ionly  alternative — 
should  bring  this  government  to  the  thought 
of  leaning  upon  any  extraneous  aid.  But  here 
is  no  necessity,  no  reason,  no  pretext,  no  excuse, 
no  apology,  for  resorting  to  collateral  aid ;  and, 
above  all,  to  the  aid  of  a  master  in  the  shape 
of  a  national  bank.  The  granted  powers  of  the 
government  are  adequate  to  the  coercion  of  all 
the  banks.  As  banks,  the  federal  government 
has  no  direct  authority  over  them ;  but  as  bank- 
rupts, it  has  them  in  its  own  hands.  It  can 
pass  bankrupt  laws  for  these  delinquent  insti- 
tutions. It  can  pass  such  laws  either  with  or 
without  including  merchants  and  traders ;  and 


the  day  for  such  law  to  take  effect,  will  be  the 
day  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  by 
every  solvent  bank,  and  the  day  for  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  abused  privileges  of  every  insolvent 
one.  So  far  from  requiring  the  impotent  aid 
of  the  miscalled  Bank  of  the  United  States  to 
effect  a  resumption,  that  institution  will  be  un- 
able to  prevent  a  resumption.  Its  veto  power 
over  other  banks  will  cease ;  and  it  will  itself 
be  compelled  to  resume  specie  payment,  or  die ! 
Besides  these  great  objects  to  be  attained  by 
the  application  of  a  buikrupt  law  to  banking 
corporations,  there  are  other  great  purposes  to 
be  accomplished,  and  some  most  sacred  duties 
to  be  fulfilled,  by  the  same  means.  Our  con- 
stitution contains  three  most  vital  prohibitions, 
of  which  the  federal  government  is  the  guardian 
and  the  guarantee,  and  which  are  now  publicly 
trodden  under  foot.  No  State  shall  emit  bills 
of  credit ;  no  State  shaU  make  any  thing  but 
gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of 
debts;  no  State  shall  pass  any  law  impairing 
the  obligation  of  contracts.  No  State  shall  do 
these  things.  So  says  the  constitution  under 
which  we  live,  and  which  it  is  the  duty  of 
every  citizen  to  protect,  preserve,  and  defend. 
But  a  new  power  has  sprung  up  among  us,  and 
has  annulled  the  whole  of  these  prohibitions. 
That  new  power  is  the  oligarchy  of  banks.  It 
has  filled  the  whole  land  with  bills  of  credit ; 
for  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  bank  notes, 
nt)t  convertible  into  specie,  are  bills  of  credit. 
It  has  suppressed  the  constitutional  currency, 
and  made  depreciated  paper  money  a  forced 
tender  in  payment  of  every  debt  It  has  vio- 
lated all  its  own  contracts,  and  compelled  all 
individuals,  and  the  federal  government  and 
State  governments,  to  violate  theirs;  and  has 
obtained  from  sovereign  States  an  express  sanc- 
tion, or  a  silent  acquiescence,  in  this  double 
violation  of  sacred  obligations,  and  in  this 
triple  annulment  of  constitutional  prohibitions. 
It  is  our  duty  .to  bring,  or  to  try  to  bring,  this 
new  power  under  subordination  to  the  laws 
and  the  government  It  is  our  duty  to  go  to 
the  succor  of  the  constitution — ^to  rescue,  if  pos- 
sible, these  prohibitions  from  daUy,  and  public, 
and  permanent  infraction.  The  application  of  the 
bankrupt  law  to  this  new  power,  is  the  way  to 
effect  this  rescue — ^the  way  to  cause  these  vital 
prohibitions  to  be  respected  and  observed,  and 
to  do  it  in  a  way  to  prevent  collisions  between 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


55 


the  States  and  the  federal  goyemment  The 
prohibitions  are  upon  the  States;  it  is  they 
who  are  not  to  do  these  things,  and,  of  course, 
are  not  to  authoidxe  others  to  do  what  they 
cannot  do  themselyee.  The  banks  are  their 
delegates  in  this  three-fold  yiolation  of  the 
constitution ;  and,  in.  proceeding  against  these 
delegates,  we  ayoid  collision  with  the  States. 

Mr.  President,  eyery  form  of  goyemment  has 
something  in  it  to  excite  the  pride,  and  to 
rouse  the  deyotion,  of  its  citizens.  In  monar- 
diies,  it  is  the  authority  of  the  king;  in  repub- 
lics, it  is  the  sanctity  of  the  laws.  The  loyal 
subject  makes  it  the  point  of  honor  to  obey  the 
king ;  the  patriot  republican  makes  it  his  glory 
to  obey  the  laws.  We  are  a  republic  We  haye 
bad  illustrious  dtixens,  conquering  generals,  and 
yictorious  armies ;  but  no  citixen,  no  general,  no 
army,  has  undertaken  to  dethrone  the  laws  and 
to  reign  in  their  stead.  This  parricidal  work 
has  been  reseryed  for  an  oligarchy  of  banks  1 
Three  times,  in  thrice  seyen  years,  this  oligarchy 
has  dethroned  the  law,  and  reigned  in  its  phioe. 
Since  May  last,  it  has  held  the  soyere^  sway, 
and  has  not  yet  youchsafed  to  indicate  the  day 
of  its  yoluntary  abdication.  The  Roman  mili- 
tary dictators  usually  fixed  a  term  to  their 
dictatorships.  I  speak  of  the  usurpers,  not  of 
the  constitutional  dictators  for  ten  days.  These 
usurpers  usually  indicated  a  time  at  which 
usurpation  should  cease,  and  law  and  order 
again  preyail.  Not  so  with  this  new  power 
^^ch  now  lords  it  oyer  our  America.  They  fix 
no  day ;  they  limit  no  time ;  they  indicate  no 
period  for  their  yoluntary  descent  from  power, 
and  for  their  yoluntary  return  to  submission  to 
the  laws.  They  could  agree  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye — at  the  drop  of  a  hat — at  the  crook  of  a 
finger — ^to  usurp  the  soyereign  power;  they 
cannot  agree,  in  four  months,  to  relinquish  it 
They  profess  to  be  willing,  but  cannot  agree  upon 
the  time.  Let  us  perform  that  seryice  for  them. 
Let  us  name  a  day.  Let  us  fix  it  in  a  bankrupt 
law.  Let  us  pass  that  law,  and  fix  a  day  for  it 
to  take  effect;  and  that  day  will  be  the  day  for 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  or  for  the 
trial  of  the  question  of  permanent  supremacy 
between  the  oligarchy  of  banks,  and  the  consti- 
tutional goyemment  of  the  people. 

We  are  called  upon  to  haye  mercy  upon  the 
banks ;  the  prayer  should  rather  be  to  them,  to 
haye  mercy  upon  the  goyemment  and  the  peo- 


ple. Since  May  last  the  ex-deposit  banks  alone 
haye  forced  twenty-fiye  millions  .of  depreciated 
ptuper  through  the  federal  goyemment  upon  its 
debtors  and  the  States,  at  a  loss  of  at  least  two 
and  a  half  millions  to  the  reeeiyers,  and  a  gun 
of  an  equal  amount  to  the  payers.  The  thou- 
sand banks  haye  the  country  and  the  goyem- 
ment under  their  feet  at  this  moment,  owing  to 
the  community  upwards  of  an  hundred  millions 
of  dollars,  of  whieh  they  will  pay  nothing,  not 
eyen  ninepenoes,  picayunes,  and  coppers.  Meta- 
phorically, if  not  literally,  they  giye  their  credi- 
tors more  kicks  than  coppers.  It  is  for  them  to 
haye  mercy  on  us.  But  what  is  the  conduct  of 
goyemment  towards  these  banks  ?  £yen  at  this 
session,  with  all  their  past  conduct  unatoned  for, 
we  haye  passed  a  relief  bill  for  their  benefit— a 
bill  to  defer  the  collection  of  the  large  balance 
which  they  still  owe  the  goyemment.  But 
there  is  mercy  due  in  another  quarter — ^upon  the 
people,  sufiering  from  the  use  of  irredeemable 
and  depreciated  paper— upon  the  goyemment, 
reduced  to  bankraptcy — upon  the  charactei;  of 
the  country,  sufiering  in  the  eyes  of  Europe — 
upon  the  character  of  republican  goyemment^ 
brought  into  question  by  the  successful  usurpa- 
tion of  these  institutions.  This  last  point  is  the 
sorest  Gentlemen  speak  of  the  failure  of  ex- 
periments— ^the  failure  of  the  specie  experiment, 
as  it  is  called  by  those  who  belieye  that  paper  is 
the  ancient  and  uniyersal  money  of  the  world ; 
and  that  the  use  of  a  little  specie  for  the  first 
time  is  not  to  be  attempted.  They  dwell  upon  the 
supposed  failure  of  ^  the  experiment ; "  while  all 
the  monarchists  of  Europe  are  rejoicing  in  the 
failure  of  the  experiment  of  republican  goyem- 
ment, at  seeing  this  goyemment,  the  last  hope 
of  the  liberal  world,  struck  and  paralyzed  by  an 
oligarchy  of  banks — seized  by  the  throat,  throt- 
tled and  held  as  a  tiger  would  hold  a  babe- 
stripped  of  its  reyenues,  bankrapted,  and  sub- 
jected to  the  degradation  of  becoming  their  en- 
gine to  force  their  depreciated  paper  upon  help- 
less creditors.  Here  is  the  place  for  mercy — 
upon  the  people — upon  the  goyemment — ^upon 
the  character  of  the  country — ^upon  the  charao> 
ter  of  republican  goyemment 

The  apostle  of  republicanism,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
has  left  it  as  a  political  legacy  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  neyer  to  suffer  their  goyem- 
ment to  fall  under  the  control  of  any  unauthor- 
ized, irresponsible,  or  self-created  institutions  or 


56 


THIRTY  TEABS^  VIEW. 


bodies  whatsoever.  His  allaskm  was  to  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  its  notorions 
machinations  to  govern  the  elections,  and  get 
command  of  the  government ;  but  his  admoni- 
tion applies  with  equal  force  to  aU  other  similar 
or  affiliated  institutions ;  and,  since  May  last,  it 
applies  to  the  whole  league  of  banks  which  then 
^  shut  up  the  Treasury,"  and  reduced  the  gov- 
ernment to  helpless  dependence. 

It  is  said  that  bankruptcy  is  a  severe  remedy 
to  apply  to  banks.  It  may  be  answered  that  it 
is  not  more  severe  here  than  in  England,  where 
it  applies  to  all  banks  of  issue,  except  the  Bank 
of  England,  and  a  few  others ;  and  it  is  not  more 
severe  to  them  than  it  is  to  merchants  and  tra- 
ders, and  to  bankers  and  brokers,  and  all  unin- 
corporated banks.  Personally,  I  was  disposed 
to  make  lai^  allowances  for  the  conduct  of  the 
banks.  Our  own  improvidence  tempted  them 
into  an  expansion  of  near  forty  millions,  in  1835 
and  1836,  by  givmg  them  the  national  doniain 
to  bank  upon ;  a  temptation  which  they  had  not 
the  fortitude  to  resist,  and  which  expanded  them 
to  near  the  bursting  point.  Then  they  were 
driven  almost  to  a  choice  of  bankruptcy  between 
themselves  and  their  debtors,  by  the  act  which 
required  near  forty  millions  to  be  distributed  in 
masses,  and  at  brief  intervals,  among  the  States. 
Some  failures  were  inevitable  under  these 
drcumstanoes,  and  I  was  disposed  to  make  lib- 
eral allowances  for  them ;  but  there  are  three 
things  for  which  the  banks  have  no  excuse,  and 
which  should  forever  weigh  against  their  claims 
to  &vor  and  confidence.  TheBe  things  are,  first, 
the  political  aspect  which  the  general  suspen- 
sion of  payment  was  permitted  to  assume,  and 
which  it  still  wears ;  secondly,  the  issue  and  use 
of  shinplasters,  and  refusal  to  pay  silver  change, 
when  there  are  eighty  millions  of  ^)ecie  in  the 
country;  thirdly,  the  refusal,  by  the  deposit 
banks  to  pay  out  the  sums  which  had  been 
severed  from  the  Treasury,  and  stood  in  the 
names  of  disbursing  ofiScers,  and  was  actually 
due  to  those  who  were  performing  work  and 
labor,  and  rendering  daily  services  to  the  gov- 
ernment For  these  three  things  there  is  no 
excuse ;  and,  while  memory  retains  their  recol- 
lection, there  can  be  no  confidence  in  those  who 
have  done  them. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

DIYOBOE  OF  BAim  AND  STATE:  MS.  BENTOITS 
SPEECH. 

The  bill  is  to  divorce  the  government  fix>m  the 
banks,  ot  rather  is  to  declare  the  divorce,  for 
the  separation  has  already  taken  place  by  the 
operation  of  law  and  by  the  delinquency  of  the 
banks.  The  bill  is  to  declare  the  divorce ;  the 
amendment  is  to  exclude  their  notes  from  reve- 
nue payments,  not  all  at  once,  but  gradually, 
and  to  be  accomplished  by  the  1st  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1841.  Until  then  the  notes  of  specie-pay- 
ing banks  may  be  received,  duninishing  one- 
fourth  annually;  and  alter  that  day,  all  pay- 
ments to  and  from  the  federal  government  are 
to  be  made  in  hard  money.  Until  that  day,  pay- 
ments from  the  United  States  will  be  govemed 
by  existing  laws.  The  amendment  does  not 
affect  the  Post  Office  department  until  January, 
1841 ;  until  then,  the  fiscal  operati<Hi8  of  that 
Department  remidn  under  the  present  laws; 
after  that  day  they  &11  under  the  principle  of 
the  bill,  and  all  payments  to  and  from  that  de- 
partment will  be  made  in  hard  money.  The 
effect  of  the  whole  amendment  will  be  to  restore 
the  currency  of  the  constitution  to  the  federal 
government — ^to  re-establish  the  great  acts  of 
1789  and  of  1800— declaring  that  the  revenues 
should  be  collected  in  gold  and  silver  coin  only ; 
those  early  statutes  which  were  enacted  by  the 
hard  money  men  who  made  the  constitutiOD, 
who  had  seen  and  felt  the  evils  of  that  paper  mo- 
ney, and  intended  to  guard  against  these  evils 
in  future  by  creating,  not  a  paper,  but  a  hard- 
money  government. 

I  am  for  this  restoration.  I  am  for  restoring 
to  the  federal  treasury  the  currency  of  the  con- 
stitution. I  am  for  carrying  back  this  govern- 
ment to  the  solidity  projected  by  its  founders. 
This  is  a  great  object  in  itself—- a  reform  of  the 
first  magnitude— «  reformation  with  healing  on 
its  wings,  bringing  safety  to  the  government  and 
blessings  to  the  people.  The  currency  is  a  thing 
which  reaches  every  individual,  and  every  insti- 
tution. From  the  government  to  the  washer^ 
woman,  all  are  reached  by  it,  and  all  concerned 
in  it ;  and,  what  seems  parodoxical,  all  are  con- 
cerned to  the  same  degree;  for  all  are  con- 


ANNO  18B7.    HAKTDT  YAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


57 


eenied  to  the  whole  extent  of  thdr  proper^  ind 
doftlingB ;  and  all  is  all,  whether  it  be  miKh  or 
little.  The  goyemment  with  its  many  ten  mil- 
lioDB  of  revenue,  suffers  no  more  in  proportion 
than  the  homble  and  meritorioos  laborer  who 
works  from  son  to  son  for  the  shillings  whidi 
give  food  and  raiment  to  his  fionily.  The  fede- 
ral goTemment  has  deteriorated  the  correncj, 
and  carried  mischief  to  the  whole  commnnitj, 
and  lost  its  own  rerenoes,  and  subjected  itsdf 
to  be  trampled  upon  by  corporations^  by  depart- 
mg  from  the  constitution,  and  converting  this 
government  from  a  hard-money  to  a  paper  mo- 
ney government  The  object  of  the  amendment 
and  the  bill  is  to  reform  these  abuses,  and  it  is 
a  reform  worthy  to  be  called  a  reformation — 
worthy  to  engage  the  labor  of  patriots — ^worthy 
to  unite  the  exertions  of  different  parties — ^wor- 
thy to  fix  the  attention  of  the  age — ^worthy  to 
excite  the  hopes  of  the  people,  and  to  invoke 
upon  its  success  the  blessings  of  heaven. 

Great  are  the  evils, — political,  peenniary,  and 
moral,, — which  have  flowed  from  this  departure 
from  our  constitution.  Through  the  federal 
government  alone— through  it,  not  by  it — ^two 
millions  and  a  half  of  mon^  have  been  lost  in 
the  last  four  months.  Thirty-two  millions  of 
public  money  was  the  amount  in  the  deposit 
banks  when  they  stopped  payment ;  of  this  sum 
twenty-five  millions  have  been  paid  over  to  gov- 
ernment creditors,  or  transferred  to  the  States. 
But  how  paid,  and  how  transferred  ?  In  what  ? 
In  real  money,  or  its  equivalent?  Not  at  all ! 
But  in  the  notes  of  suspended  banks — ^in  notes 
depredated,  on  an  average,  ten  per  cent  Here 
then  were  two  and  a  half  millions  lost  Who 
bore  the  loss?  The  public  creditors  and  the 
States.  Who  gained  it  ?  for  where  there  is  a 
loss  to  one,  there  must  be  a  gain  to  another. 
Who  gained  the  two  and  a  half  millions,  thus 
sunk  upon  the  hands  of  the  creditors  and  the 
States?  The  banks  were  the  gainers;  they 
gained  it ;  the  public  creditors  and  the  States 
lost  it ;  and  to  the  creditors  it  was  a  forced  loss. 
It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  they  consented  to  take 
it  They  had  no  alternative.  It  was  that  or 
nothing.  The  banks  forced  it  upon  the  govern- 
meat ;  the  government  forced  it  upon  the  credi- 
tor. Consent  was  out  of  the  question.  Power 
ruled,  and  that  power  was  in  the  banks ;  and 
they  gained  the  two  and  a  half  millions  which 
the  States  and  the  puhUe  creditors  lost 


I  do  not  pretend  to  estimate  the  moneyed 
losses,  direct  and  indirect,  to  the  government 
alone,  from  the  use  of  IogkI  bank  notes  in  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  including  the  war,  and 
covering  three  general  suspensions.  Leaving 
the  people  out  of  view,  as  a  field  of  losses  be- 
yond calculation,  I  confine  myself  to  the  federal 
government,  and  say,  its  losses  have  been  enoi^ 
mous,  prodigious,  and  incalculable.  We  have 
had  three  general  stoppages  of  the  local  banks 
in  the  short  space  of  twenty-two  years.  It  is 
at  the  average  rate  of  one  in  seven  years ;  and 
who  is  to  guaranty  us  from  another,  and  ftxnn 
the  consequent  losses,  if  we  continue  to  receive 
their  bills  in  payment  of  public  dues?  Another 
stoppage  must  come,  and  that,  reasoning  from 
all  analogies,  in  less  than  seven  years  after  the 
resumption.  Many  must  perish  in  the  attempt 
to  resume,  and  would  do  better  to  wind  up  at 
once,  without  attempting  to  go  on,  without  ade* 
quate  means,  and  against  appalling  obstacles. 
Another  revulsion  must  come.  Thus  it  was 
after  the  last  resumption.  The  banks  recom- 
menced payments  in  1817 — in  two  years,  the 
feilures  were  more  disastrous  than  ever.  Thus 
it  was  in  England  after  the  long  suspension  of 
twenty-six  years.  Payments  recommenced  in 
182d— in  1825  the  most  desolating  crash  of 
banks  took  place  which  had  ever  been  known 
in  the  kingdom,  although  the  Bank  of  England 
had  imported,  in  less  than  four  years,  twcn^ 
millions  sterling  in  gold, — about  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  to  recommence  upon.  Its 
effects  reached  this  country,  crushed  the  cotton 
houses  in  New  Orleans,  depressed  the  money 
market,  and  iigured  all  business. 

The  senators  from  New  Toric  and  Virginia 
(Messrs.  Tallmadge  and  Rives)  push  this  point 
of  confidence  a  little  fiirther ;  they  address  a 
question  to  me,  and  ask  if  I  would  lose  confi- 
dence in  all  steamboats,  and  have  them  all  dis- 
carded, if  one  or  two  blew  up  in  the  Mississippi  1 
I  answer  the  question  in  all  frankness,  and  say, 
that  I  should  not  But  if^  instead  of  one  or  two 
in  the  Mississippi,  all  the  steamboats  in  the 
Union  should  blow  up  at  once — ^in  every  creek, 
river  and  bay— while  all  the  passengers  were 
sleeping  in  confidence,  and  the  pUots  crying  out 
all  is  well ;  if  the  whole  should  blow  up  from 
one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other  just  as  fast  as 
they  could  hear  each  other's  explosions ;  then, 
indeed,  I  should  lose  confidence  in  them,  and 


58 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


neyer  ag&in  trust  wife,  or  child,  or  mj  own  foot, 
or  anj  thing  not  intended  for  destruction,  on 
board  such  sympathetic  and  contagious  engines 
of  death.  I  answer  further,  and  tell  the  gentle- 
men, that  if  only  one  or  two  banks  had  stopped 
last  May  in  New  York,  I  should  not  have  lost 
all  confidence  in  the  remaining  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-nine;  but  when  the  whole  thou- 
sand stopped  at  once ;  tumbled  down  together — 
fell  in  a  lump — lie  there— and  when  ONE  of 
their  number,  by  a  sign  with  the  little  finger, 
can  make  the  whole  lie  still,  then,  indeed,  confi- 
dence is  gone  !  And  this  is  the  case  with  the 
banks.  They  have  not  only  stopped  altogether, 
but  In  a  season  of  profound  peace,  with  eighty 
millions  of  specie  in  the  country,  and  just  after 
the  annual  examinations  by  commissioners  and 
legislative  committees,  and  when  all  was  re- 
ported welL  With  eighty  millions  in  the  coun- 
try, they  stop  even  for  change !  It  did  not  take 
a  national  calamity — a  war — ^to  stop  them  ! 
They  fell  in  time  of  peace  and  prosperity  !  We 
read  of  people  in  the  West  Indies,  and  in  South 
America,  who  rebuild  their  cities  on  the  same 
spot  where  earthquakes  had  overthrown  them ; 
we  are  astonished  at  their  fatuity ;  we  wonder 
that  they  will  build  again  on  the  same  perilous 
foundations.  But  these  people  have  a  reason 
for  their  conduct ;  it  is,  that  their  cities  are  only 
destroyed  by  earthquakes ;  it  takes  an  earth- 
quake to  destroy  them ;  and  when  there  is  no 
earthquake,  they  are  safe.  But  suppose  their 
cities  fell  down  without  any  ^commotion  in  the 
earth,  or  the  air — fell  in  a  season  of  perfect 
calm  and  serenity — and  after  that  the  survivors 
should  go  to  building  again  in  the  same  place ; 
would  not  all  the  world  say  that  they  were  de- 
mented, and  were  doomed  to  destruction  ?  So 
of  the  government  of  the  United  States  by  these 
banks.  If  it  continues  to  use  them,  and  to  re- 
ceive their  notes  for  revenue,  after  what  has 
happened,  and  in  the  face  of  what  now  exists, 
it  argues  fatuity,  and  a  doom  to  destruction. 

Resume  when  they  will,  or  when  they  shall, 
and  the  longer  it  is  delayed  the  worse  for  them- 
Mlves,  the  epoch  of  resumption  is  to  be  a  peril- 
ous crisis  to  many.  This  stopping  and  resuming 
by  banks,  is  the  realization  of  the  poetical  de- 
scription of  the  descent  into  hell,  and  the  return 
from  it  Facilis  descensus  Avemi—sed  revo- 
care  gradum — hie  opus^  hie  labor  est  Easy 
ig  the  descent  into  the  regions  below,  but  to  re- 


turn !  thiB  is  work,  this  is  labor  indeed !  Our 
banks  have  made  the  descent ;  they  haVe  gone 
down  with  ease ;  but  to  return — ^to  ascend  the 
rugged  steps,  and  behold  again  the  light  above, 
how  many  will  felter,  and  fall  back  into  the 
gloomy  r^ons  below. 

Banks  of  circulation  are  banks  of  hazard  and 
of  failure.  It  is  an  incident  of  their  nature. 
Those  without  circulation  rarely  &iL  That  of 
Venice  has  stood  seven  hundred  years ;  those  of 
Hambui^h,  Amsterdam,  and  others,  have  stood 
for  centuries.  The  Bank  of  England,  the  great 
mother  of  banks  of  circulation,  besides  an  actual 
stoppage  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  has  had  her 
crisis  and  convulsion  in  average  periods  of  seven 
or  eight  years,  for  the  last  half  century — in 
1783,  '93,  '97, 1814,  '19,  '25,  '3(>-and  has  only 
been  saved  from  repeated  failure  by  the  power- 
ful support  of  the  British  government,  and  pro- 
fuse supplies  of  exchequer  bills.  Her  numerous 
progeny  of  private  and  joint  stock  banks  of  cir- 
culation have  had  the  same  convulsions;  and 
not  being  supported  by  the  government,  have 
sunk  by  hundreds  at  a  time.  All  the  banks  of 
the  United  States  are  banks  of  circulation ;  they 
are  all  subject  to  the  inherent  dangers  of  that 
class  of  banks,  and  are,  besides,  subject  to  new 
dangers  peculiar  to  themselves.  From  the 
quantity  of  their  stock  held  by  foreigners,  the 
quantity  of  other  stocks  in  their  hands,  and  the 
current  foreign  balance  against  the  United 
States,  our  paper  system  has  become  an  ap- 
pendage to  that  of  England.  As  such,  it  suffers 
from  sympathy  when  the  English  system  sufiers. 
In  addition  to  this,  a  new  doctrine  is  now 
broached — ^that  our  first  duty  is  to  foreigners ! 
and,  upon  this  principle,  when  the  banks  of  the 
two  countries  are  in  peril,  ours  are  to  be  sacri- 
ficed to  save  those  of  England ! 

The  power  of  a  few  banks  over  the  whole, 
presents  a  new  feature  of  danger  in  our  system. 
It  consolidates  the  bonks  of  the  whole  Union 
into  one  mass,  and  subjects  them  to  one  fate, 
and  that  fate  to  be  decided  by  a  few,  without 
even  the  knowledge  of  the  rest.  An  unknown 
divan  of  bankers  sends  forth  an  edict  which 
sweeps  over  the  empire,  crosses  the  lines  of 
States  with  the  facility  of  a  Turkish  firman, 
prostrating  all  State  institutions,  breaking  up 
all  engagements,  and  levelling  all  law  before  it. 
This  iB  consolidation  of  a  kind  which  the  genius 
of  Patrick  Henry  had  not  even  conceived.    But 


ANNO  18».    MARTIN  VAN  BUSKN,  PRBBIDENT. 


69 


whOe  this  firman  is  thus  potent  uid  irresistible 
for  prostmtion,  it  is  impotent  and  powerless  for 
resurrection.  It  goes  out  in  yain,  bidding  the 
prostrate  banks  to  rise.  A  i?eto  power  intervenes. 
One  Toioe  is  sufficient  to  keep  all  down ;  and  thus 
we  have  seen  one  word  from  Philadelphia  an- 
nihilate the  New  York  proposition  for  resump- 
tion, and  condemn  the  many  solvent  banks  to 
the  continuation  of  a  condition  as  mortifying  to 
their  feelings  as  it  is  injurious  to  their  future 
interests. 

Again,  from  the  mode  of  doing  business  among 
our  banks — ^using  each  other's  paper  to  bank 
upon,  instead  of  holding  each  other  to  we^j 
settlements,  and  liquidation  of  balances  in  specie, 
and  from  the  fatal  practice  of  issuing  notes  at 
one  place,  payable  at  another— our  banks  have 
all  become  links  of  one  chain,  the  streng^th  of  the 
whole  being  dependent  on  the  strength  of  each. 
A  few  govern  all.  Whether  it  is  to  &i],  or  to 
resume,  the  few  govern ;  and  not  only  the  few, 
but  the  weak.  A  few  weak  banks  &il ;  a  panic 
ensues,  and  the  rest  shut  up ;  many  strong  ones 
are  ready  to  resume;  the  weak  are  not  ready, 
and  the  strong  must  wait.  Thus  the  principles 
of  safety,  and  the  rules  of  government,  are  re- 
versed. The  weak  govern  the  strong ;  the  bad 
govern  the  good ;  and  the  insolvent  govern  the 
solvent  This  is  our  system,  if  system  it  can  be 
called,  which  has  no  feature  of  consistency,  no 
principle  of  safety,  and  which  is  nothing  but  the 
floating  appendage  of  a  foreign  and  overpower- 
ing system. 

The  federal  government  and  its  creditors  have 
suffered  great  pecuniaiy  losses  from  the  use  of 
these  banks  and  their  paper;  they  must  con- 
tinue to  sustain  such  losses  if  they  continue  to 
use  such  depositories  and  to  receive  such  paper. 
The  pecuniary  losses  have  been,  now  are,  and 
must  be  hereafter  great ;  but,  great  as  they  have 
been,  now  are,  and  may  be  hereafter,  all  that 
loss  is  nothing  compared  to  the  political  dangers 
which  flow  from  the  same  source.  These  dan- 
gers affect  the  life  of  the  government  They  go 
to  its  existence.  They  involve  anarchy,  con- 
fusion, violence,  dissolution!  They  go  to 
deprive  the  government  of  support  —  of  the 
means  of  living;  they  strip  it  in  an  instant  of 
every  shilling  of  revenue,  and  leave  it  penniless, 
helpless,  lifeless.  The  late  stoppage  might  have 
broken  up  the  government,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  fidelity  and  affection  of  the  people  to  their  in- 
Btitutions  and  the  eighty  millions  of  specie  which 


General  Jackson  had  accumulated  in  the  coun- 
try. That  stoppage  presented  a  peculiar  feature 
of  peril  which  has  not  been  brought  to  the 
notice  of  the  public;  it  was  the  stoppage  of  the 
sums  standing  in  the  names  of  disbursing 
officers,  and  wanted  for  daily  payments  in  all 
the  branches  of  the  public  service.  These  sums 
amounted  to  about  five  millions  of  dollars. 
They  had  been  dravm  from  the  Treasury,  they 
were  no  longer  standing  to  the  credit  of  the 
United  States ;  they  had  gone  into  the  hands  of 
innumerable  officers  and  agents,  in  all  parts  of 
the  Union,  and  were  temporarily,  and  for  mere 
safe-keeping  from  day  to  day,  lodged  with  these 
deposit  banks,  to  be  incessantly  paid  out  to 
those  who  were  doing  work  and  labor,  perform- 
ing contracts,  or  rendering  service,  civil  or  mili- 
tary, to  the  country.  These  five  millions  were 
stopped  with  the  rest !  In  an  instant,  as  if  by 
enchantment,  every  disbursing  officer,  in  every 
part  of  the  Union,  was  stripped  of  the  money 
which  he  was  going  to  pay  out !  All  officers  of 
the  government,  high  and  low,  the  whole  army 
and  navy,  all  the  laborers  and  contractors,  post 
offices  and  all,  were  suddenly,  instantaneously, 
left  without  pay;  and  consequentiy  without  sub- 
sistence. It  was  tantamount  to  a  disbandment 
of  the  entire  government  It  was  like  a  decree 
for  the  dissolution  of  the  body  politic  It  was 
celebrated  as  a  victory— as  a  conquest — as  a 
triumph,  over  the  government  The  least  that 
was  expected  was  an  immediate  civil  revolution 
— ^the  overthrow  of  the  democratic  party,  the 
change  of  administration,  the  reascension  of  the 
federal  party  to  power,  and  the  re-establishment 
of  the  condemned  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
These  consequences  were  counted  upon;  and 
that  they  did  not  happen  was  solely  owing  to 
the  eighty  millions  of  hard  money  which  kept 
up  a  standard  of  value  in  the  country,  and  pre- 
vented the  dishonored  bank  notes  fr^m  sinking 
too  low  f.0  be  used  by  the  community.  But  it  is 
not  merely  stoppage  of  the  banks  that  we  have 
to  fear :  collisions  with  the  States  may  ensue. 
State  legislatures  may  sanction  the  stoppage, 
withhold  the  poor  right  of  suing,  and  thus  in- 
terpose their  authority  between  the  federal 
government  and  its  revenues.  This  has  already 
happened,  not  in  hostility  to  the  government, 
but  in  protection  of  themselves ;  and  the  conse- 
quence was  the  same  as  if  the  intention  had  been 
hostile.  It  was  interposition  between  the 
federal  government  and  its  depositories ;  it  waa 


60 


TEURTT  YEAB8'  VIEW. 


deprtyation  of  revenue  $  it  was  an  act  the  lecmr- 
renoe  of  which  should  be  carefiillj  guarded 
against  in  future. 

This  is  what  we  have  seen;  this  is  a  danger 
which  we  have  just  escaped ;  and  if  these  banks 
shall  be  continued  as  depositories  of  public 
money,  or,  wliich  is  just  the  same  thing,  if  the 
government  shall  continue  to  receive  their 
"  paper  prcmiises  to  pay,"  the  same  danger  may 
be  seen  again,  and  under  &r  more  critical  dr- 
cumstances.  A  similar  stoppage  of  the  banks 
may  take  place  again — ^will  inevitably  take 
place  again — and  it  may  be  when  there  is  little 
specie  in  the  country,  or  when  war  prevails.  All 
history  is  full  of  examples  of  armies  and  navies 
revolting  for  want  of  pay ;  all  history  is  full  of 
examples  of  military  and  naval  operations  mis- 
carried for  want  of  money ;  all  histoiy  is  full  of  in- 
stances of  governments  overturned  from  deficits 
of  revenue  and  derangements  of  finances.  And 
are  we  to  expose  ourselves  recklessly,  and  with 
our  eyes  open,  to  such  dangers  ?  And  are  we  to 
stake  the  life  and  death  of  this  government  upon 
the  hazards  and  contingencies  of  banking — and 
of  such  banking  as  exists  in  these  United  States  1 
Are  we  to  subject  the  existence  of  this  govern- 
ment to  the  stoppages  of  the  banks,  whether 
those  stoppages  result  from  misfortune,  impro- 
vidence, or  bad  futh?  Are  we  to  subject  this 
great  and  glorious  political  fabric,  the  work  of 
so  many  wise  and  patriotic  heads,  to  be  de- 
molished in  an  instant,  and  by  an  unseen  hand? 
Are  we  to  suffer  the  machinery  and  the  work- 
ing of  our  boasted  constitution  to  be  arrested 
by  a  spring-catch,  applied  in  the  dark?  Are 
men,  with  pens  sticking  behind  their  ears,  to  be 
allowed  to  put  an  end  to  this  republic  ?  No, 
sir !  never.  If  we  are  to  perish  prematurely,  let 
us  at  least  have  a  death  worthy  of  a  great 
nation ;  let  us  at  least  have  a  field  covered  with 
the  bodies  of  heroes  and  of  patriots,  and  conse- 
crated forever  to  the  memory  of  a  subverted 
empire.  Rome  had  her  Pharsaiia — Greece  her 
Ghseronea — and  many  barbarian  kingdoms  have 
given  immortality  to  the  spot  on  which  they 
expired ;  and  shall  this  great  republic  be  sub- 
jected to  extinction  on  the  contingencies  of  trade 
and  banking? 

But  what  excuse,  what  apology,  what  justi- 
fication have  we  for  surrendering,  abandoning, 
and  losing  the  precise  advantage  for  which  the 
present  constitution  was  formed?    What  was 


that  advantage — ^what  the  leading  and  govern- 
ing object,  which  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
old  confederation,  and  induced  the  adoption  of 
the  present  form  of  government  ?  It  was  reve* 
nuel  independent  revenue!  a  revenue  under 
the  absolute  control  of  this  govonment,  and 
free  firom  the  action  of  the  States.  This  was 
the  motive — ^the  leading  and  the  governing  mo- 
tive— which  led  to  the  formation  of  this  govenir 
ment.  The  reason  was,  that  the  old  confedera- 
tion, being  dependent  upon  the  States,  was 
often  left  without  money.  This  state  of  being 
was  incompatible  with  its  existence ;  it  deprived 
it  of  all  power;  its  imbecility  was  a  proverb. 
To  extricate  it  from  that  condition  was  the  de- 
sign—and the  cardinal  design — of  the  new  con- 
stitution. An  independent  revenue  was  given 
to  it— independent,  even,  of  the  States.  Is  it 
not  suicidal  to  surrender  that  independence^ 
and  to  surrender  it,  not  to  States,  but  to  money 
corporations  ?  What  does  history  record  of  th^ 
penury  and  moneyed  destitution  of  the  old  con- 
federation, comparable  to  the  annihilation  of  the 
revenues  of  this  government  in  May  last  ?  whm 
the  banks  shut  down,  in  one  night,  upon  a  rev- 
enue, in  hand,  of  thirty-two  millions;  even 
upon  that  which  was  in  the  names  of  disbursing 
officers,  and  refuse  a  nine-pence,  or  a  picaillon 
in  money,  from  that  day  to  this?  What  is 
there  in  the  history  of  the  old  oonfederation 
comparable  to  this?  The  old  confederation 
was  often  reduced  low— often  near  empty- 
handed— but  never  saw  itself  stripped  in  an 
instant,  as  if  by  enchantment,  of  tens  of  mil- 
lions, and  heard  the  shout  of  triumph  thun- 
dered over  its  head,  and  the  notes  of  exultation 
sung  over  its  supposed  destruction  1  Yet,  this 
is  what  we  have  seen— what  we  now  see— from 
having  surrendered  to  corporations  our  moneyed 
independence,  and  unwisely  abandoned  the  pre- 
cise advantage  which  led  to  the  formation  of  thia 
federal  government 

I  do  not  go  into  the  moral  view  of  this  ques- 
tion. It  is  too  obvious,  too  impressive^  too 
grave,  to  escape  the  observation  of  any  one. 
Demoralization  follows  in  the  train  of  an  un- 
convertible paper  money.  The  whole  com- 
munity becomes  exposed  to  a  moral  pestilence. 
Every  individual  becomes  the  victim  of  some 
imposition  ;  and,  in  self-defence,  imposes  upon 
some  one  else.  The  weak,  the  ignorant,  the 
uninformed,  the  necessitous,  are  the  sufferers  ; 


ANKO  1881    MARIXN  YAK  BUB£N,  PRESIDENT. 


61 


tbe  cnfty  and  the  opolent  ue  the  gainers. 
The  evil  angments  until  the  moral  sense  of  the 
oomniunit7,  rerolting  at  the  frightful  aoeamn- 
lation  of  fraud  and  misery,  applies  the  radical 
remedy  of  total  reform. 

Thus,  pecuniary,  political,  and  moral  con- 
siderations require  the  goyemment  to  retrace 
its  steps,  to  return  to  first  principles,  and  to 
restore  its  fiscal  action  to  the  salb  and  solid 
path  of  the  constitution.  Reform  is  demanded. 
It  is  called  for  by  every  public  and  by  ereiy 
private  consideration.  Now  is  the  time  to 
make  it.  The  connection  between  Bank  and 
State  is  actually  dissolved.  It  is  dissolved  by 
operation  of  law,  and  by  the  delinquency  of 
these  institutions.  They  have  forfeited  the 
light  to  the  deposits,  and  lost  the  privilege  of 
paying  the  revenue  in  their  notes,  by  ceasing  to 
pay  specie.  The  government  is  now  going  on 
vrithout  them,  and  all  that  is  wanting  is  the 
appropriate  l^iislation  to  perpetuate  the  divorce 
which,  in  point  of  ftct,  has  already  taken  place. 
Now  is  the  time  to  act;  this  the  moment  to 
restore  the  constitutional  currency  to  the  fed- 
eral government;  to  restore  the  custody  of  the 
public  moneys  to  national  keepers ;  and  to  avoid, 
in  time  to  come,  the  calamitous  revulsions  and 
perilous  catastrophes  of  1814^  1819,  and  1837. 

And  what  is  the  obstade  to  the  adoption  of 
this  course,  so  imptfiously  demanded  by  the 
sflfe^  of  the  republic  and  the  welfare  of  the 
people,  and  so  earnestly  recommended  to  us  by 
the  chief  magistrate  ?  What  is  the  obstacle — 
what  the  power  that  oountervaOs  the  Executive 
recommendation,  paralyses  the  action  of  Con- 
gress, and  stays  the  march  of  reform?  The 
banks — ^the  banks— the  banks,  are  this  obsta- 
cle, and  this  power.  They  set  up  tbe  preten- 
sion to  foroe  their  paper  into  the  fSMieral  Treas- 
ury, and  to  foroe  themselves  to  be  constituted 
that  Treasury.  Though  now  bankrupt,  their 
paper  dishonored,  their  doors  closed  against 
creditors,  every  public  and  every  private  obli- 
gation violated,  still  they  arrogate  a  supremat^ 
over  this  federal  government ;  they  demand  tlM 
guardianship  of  the  public  moneys,  and  the 
privilege  of  furnishing  a  federal  currency ;  and, 
though  too  weak  to  pay  their  debts,  Uiey  are 
strong  enough  to  throttie  this  government,  and 
to  hold  in  doubtfbl  suspense  the  issue  of  their 
yast  pretensions. 

The  President,  in  his  message,  recommends 


firnr  things :  first,  to  discontinue  the  reception 
of  local  bank  paper  in  payment  of  federal  dues ; 
secondly,  to  discontinue  the  same  banks  as 
depositories  of  the  public  moneys ;  thirdly,  to 
make  the  future  collection  and  disbursement  <^ 
the  public  moneys  in  gold  and  silver;  fourthly, 
to  take  the  keeping  of  the  public  moneys  into 
the  hands  of  our  own  officers. 

What  is  there  in  this  but  a  return  to  the 
words  and  meaning  of  the  constitution,  and  a 
conformity  to  the  practice  of  the  government  in 
the  first  years  of  President  Washington's  ad- 
ministration f  When  this  federal  government 
was  first  liarmed,  there  was  no  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  and  no  local  banks,  except  three 
north  of  the  Potomac  By  the  act  of  1789,  the 
revenues  were  directed  to  be  collected  in  gold 
and  silver  coin  only ;  and  it  was  usually  drawn 
out  (^  the  hands  <^  collectors  by  drafts  drawn 
upon  them,  payable  at  sight  It  ms  a  paost 
effectual  way  of  drawing  money  out  of  their 
hands ;  fiur  more  so  than  an  order  to  deposit  in 
banks;  for  the  drafts  must  be  paid,  or  pro- 
tested, at  sight)  while  the  order  to  deposit  may 
be  eluded  under  various  pretexts. 

The  right  and  the  obligation  of  the  govern- 
ment to  keep  its  own  moneys  in  its  own  hands, 
results  fi^m  first  principles,  and  firom  the  great 
law  of  self-preservation.  Every  thing  else  that 
belongs  to  her,  she  keeps  herself;  and  why  not 
keep  that  also,  without  which  every  thing  else 
isnothingi  Arms  and  ships — provisions,  muni- 
tions, and  supi^ies  of  every  kind — are  kept  in 
the  hands  of  government  officers ;  money  is  the 
smew  of  war,  and  why  leave  this  sinew  exposed 
to  be  cut  by  any  caoreless  or  fUthless  hand  ? 
Money  is  the  support  and  existenoe  of  the  goT- 
emment—the  breath  of  its  nostrils,  and  why 
leave  this  support — this  breath — ^to  the  custoc^ 
of  those  over  whom  we  have  no  control  ?  How 
absurd  to  place  our  ships,  our  aims,  our  mili- 
tary and  naval  supplies  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  could  refbse  to  deliver  them  when  re- 
quested, and  put  the  government  to  a  suit  at 
law  to  recover  their  possession  I  Every  body 
sees  the  absurdity  of  this;  but  to  place  our 
mcmey  in  the  same  condition,  and,  moreover,  to 
subject  it  to  the  vicissitudes  of  trade  and  the 
perils  of  banking,  is  still  more  absurd ;  for  it  is 
the  life  blood,  without  which  the  government 
cannot  live— the  oil,  without  which  no  part  of 
Its  machinery  can  move. 


62 


TfflRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


England,  with  all  her  banks,  tniBts  none  of 
them  with  the  collection,  keeping,  and  disburse- 
ment of  her  public  moneys.  The  Bank  of 
England  is  paid  a  specific  sum  to  manage  the 
public  debt ;  but  the  reyenue  is  collected  and 
disbursed  through  subordinate  collectors  and 
receiyers  general;  and  these  receivers  general 
are  not  subject  to  the  bankrupt  laws,  because 
the  government  will  not  suffer  its  revenue  to 
be  operated  upon  by  any  law  except  its  own 
wilL  In  France,  subordinate  collectors  and 
receivers  general  collect,  keep,  and  disburse  the 
public  moneys.  If  they  deposit  any  thing  in 
banks,  it  is  at  their  own  risk.  It  is  the  same 
thing  in  England.  A  bank  deposit  by  an  offi- 
cer is  at  the  risk  oi  himself  and  his  securities. 
Too  much  of  the  perils  and  vicissitudes  of 
banking  is  known  in  these  coimtries  to  permit 
the  government  ever  to  jeopard  its  revenues  in 
their  keeping.  All  this  is  shown,  fully  and  at 
large,  in  a  public  document  now  on  our  tables. 
And  who  does  not  recognize  in  these  collectors 
and  receivers  general  of  France  and  England, 
the  ancient  Roman  officers  of  qusestors  and  pro- 
quiestors?  These  fiscal  officers  of  France  and 
England  are  derivations  from  the  Roman  insti- 
tutions; and  the  same  are  (bund  in  all  the 
modem  kingdoms  of  Europe  which  were  for^ 
merly,  like  France  and  Britain,  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire.  The  measure  before  the  Sen- 
ate is  to  enable  us  to  provide  for  our  future 
safety,  by  complyii^  with  our  own  constitution, 
and  conforming  to  the  practice  of  all  nations, 
great  or  small,  ancient  or  modem. 

Coming  nearer  home,  and  looking  into  our 
own  early  histoiy,  what  were  the  '^  continental 
treasurers"  of  the  confederation,  and  the  ''pro- 
vincial treasurers  and  collectors,"  provided  for 
as  early  as  July,  1775,  but  an  imitation  of  the 
French  and  English  systems,  and  very  near  the 
plan  which  we  propose  now  to  re-establish! 
These  continental  treasurers,  and  there  were 
two  of  them  at  first,  though  afterwards  reduced 
to  one,  were  the  receivers  general ;  the  provin- 
cial treasurers  and  collectors  were  their  subor- 
dinates. By  these  officers  the  public  moneys 
were  collected,  kept,  and  disbursed;  for  there 
were  no  banks  then!  and  all  government  drafts 
were  drawn  directly  upon  these  officers.  This 
simple  plan  worked  well  during  the  Revolution, 
and  afterwards^  until  the  new  government  was 
formed;  and  continued  to  work,  with  a  mere 


change  of  names  and  forms,  during  the  first 
years  of  Washington's  administration,  and  until 
General  Hamilton's  bank  machinery  got  into  • 
play.  This  bill  only  proposes  to  re-establish, 
in  substance,  the  system  of  the  Revolution,  of 
the  Congress  of  the  confederation,  and  of  the 
first  years  of  Washington's  administration. 

The  bill  reported  by  the  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Finance  [Mr.  Wright  of  New  Yoric] 
presents  the  details  of  the  plan  for  accomplish- 
ing this  great  result.  That  bill  has  been  printed 
and  read.  Its  simplicity,  economy,  and  efficien- 
cy strike  the  sense  of  all  who  hear  it,  and  aimi* 
hilate  without  argument,  the  most  formidable 
arguments  of  expense  and  patronage,  which  had 
been  conceived  against  it  The  present  officers, 
the  present  mints,  and  one  or  two  more  mints 
in  the  South,  in  the  West,  and  in  the  North, 
complete  the  plan.  There  will  be  no  necessity 
to  carry  masses  of  hard  money  from  one  quar- 
ter of  the  Union  to  another.  Government  drafts 
will  make  the  transfer  without  moving  a  dollar. 
A  government  draft  upon  a  national  mint,  wiU 
be  the  highest  order  of  bills  of  exchange.  Mo- 
ney wanted  by  the  government  in  one  place, 
will  be  exchanged,  through  merchants,  for  mo- 
ney in  another  phice.  Thus  it  has  been  for 
thousands  of  years,  and  will  for  ever  be.  We 
read  in  Cicero's  letters  that  when  he  was  Gov- 
emor  of  Cilicia^  in  Asia  Minor,  he  directed  his 
quuBStor  to  deposit  the  tribute  of  the  province  in 
Antioch,  and  exchange  it  for  money  in  Rome 
with  merchants  engaged  in  the  Oriental  trade^ 
of  which  Antioch  was  one  of  the  emporiums. 
This  is  the  natural  course  of  things,  and  is  too 
obvious  to  require  explanation,  or  to  admit  of 
comment 

We  are  taunted  with  these  treasury  notes ;  it 
seems  to  be  matter  of  triumph  that  the  govern- 
ment is  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  issuing  them ; 
but  with  what  justice  ?  And  how  soon  can  any 
govemment  that  wishes  it,  emerge  from  the 
wretchedness  of  depreciated  paper,  and  stand 
erect  on  the  solid  foundations  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver? How  long  will  it  take  any  respectable 
government,  that  so  wills  it,  to  accomplish  this 
great  change  ?  Our  own  history,  at  the  close 
of  the  Revolution,  answers  the  question ;  and 
more  recently,  and  more  strikingly,  the  history 
of  France  answers  it  also.  I  speak  of  tho 
French  finances  fi^m  1800  to  1807 ;  from  the 
commencement  of  the  consulate  to  the  peace  of 


ANNO  1887.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


63 


Tilsit.  This  wonderM  period  is  replete  with 
instruction  on  the  sahject  of  finance  and  curren- 
cy. The  whole  period  is  Ml  of  instruction; 
but  I  can  only  seize  two  yiews — ^the  beginning 
and  the  end — and,  for  the  sake  of  precision,  will 
read  what  I  propose  to  present.  I  read  from 
Bignon,  author  of  the  civil  and  diplomatic  his- 
toiy  of  France  during  the  consulate  and  the  first 
years  o^  the  empire ;  written  at  the  testamen- 
tary request  of  the  Emperor  hxmselfl 

After  stating  that  the  expenditures  of  the  re- 
public were  sue  hundred  millions  of  firancs — 
about  one  hundred  and  ten  millions  of  dollars — 
when  Bonaparte  became  First  Consul,  the  lusto- 
rian  proceeds: 

^^  At  his  arrival  at  p&fcer^  a  mm  of  160,000 
francs  in  money  [about  $82,000]  was  all  that 
the  public  chests  contained.  In  the  impossibili' 
ty  of  meeting  the  current  service  by  the  ordinO' 
ry  receipts^  ths  Directorial  Gotemment  had  re- 
aorted  to  ruinous  expedients,  and  had  thrown 
into  circulation  bills  of  various  values^  and 
which  sunk  upon  the  spot  fifty  to  eighty  per 
eent.  A  part  of  the  arrearages  had  been  dis- 
charged in  bills  ttoo'thirds  on  credit,  payable  to 
the  bearer,  but  which,  in  fact,  the  Prea»ury  was 
not  able  to  pay  when  due.  The  remaining 
third  had  been  inscribed  in  the  great  booh,  un- 
der the  name  of  consolidated  third.  For  the 
payment  of  the  forced  requisitions  to  which 
they  had  been  Miged  to  have  recourse,  there 
had  been  issued  bills  receivaible  in  payment  of 
the  revenues.  Finally,  the  gotemment,  in  order 
to  satisfy  the  most  imperious  wants,  game  orders 
upon  the  receivers  general,  delivered  in  advance 
to  contractors,  which  they  negotiated  before 
they  began  to  furnish  the  supplies  for  which 
they  were  the  payment?^ 

This,  resumed  Mr.  B.,  was  the  condition  of 
the  French  finances  when  Bonaparte  became 
First  Con^  at  the  dose  of  the  year  1799.  The 
currency  was  in  the  same  condition — no  spe- 
cie— a  degraded  currency  of  assignats,  ruinous- 
ly depreciated,  and  issued  as  low  as  ten  sous. 
That  great  man  immediately  began  to  restore 
order  to  the  finances,  and  solidity  to  the  curren- 
cy. Happily  a  peace  of  three  years  enabled  him 
to  complete  the  great  work,  before  he  was  called 
to  celebrate  the  immortal  campaigns  ending  at 
Austerlitz,  Jena^  and  Friedland.  At  the  end 
of  three  years — ^before  the  rupture  of  the  peace 
of  Amiens — the  finances  and  the  currency  were 
restored  to-order  and  to  solidity;  and,  at  the 
end  of  six  years,  when  the  yast  establishments, 
and  the  internal  ameliorations  of  the  imperial 


goremment,  had  carried  the  annual  expenses  to 
eight  hundred  millions  of  francs,  about  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions  of  dollars;  the  same 
historian  copying  the  words  of  the  Minister  of 
Finance,  thus  speaks  of  the  treasury,  and  the 
curr6n<7: 

"  The  resources  of  the  State  have  increased 
beyond  its  wants;  the  public  chests  are  full ; 
all  payments  a/re  made  at  the  day  named;  the 
orders  upon  the  public  treasury  have  become  the 
most  approved  btlls  of  exchange.  The  finances  ' 
are  in  the  most  happy  condition  ;  France  alone^ 
among  all  the  States  of  Europe,  has  no  paper 
money?^ 

What  a  picture !  how  simply,  how  powerful- 
ly drawn!  and  what  a  change  in  six  years! 
Public  chests  full — ^payments  made  to  the  day — 
orders  on  the  treasury  the  best  bills  of  exchange 
— France  alone,  of  aU  Europe,  having  no  paper 
money ;  meaning  no  government  paper  money, 
for  there  were  bank  notes  of  five  hundred  francs, 
and  one  thousand  francs.  A  government  reve* 
nue  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  dollars 
was  paid  in  gold  and  silver ;  a  hard  money  cur- 
rency, of  five  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dol- 
lars, saturated  all  parts  of  France  with  specie, 
and  made  gold  and  silver  the  every  day  curren- 
cy of  every  man,  woman  and  child,  in  the  em- 
pire. These  great  results  were  the  work  of  six 
years,  and  were  accomplished  by  the  simple  pro- 
cess of  gradually  requiring  hard  money  pay- 
ments— gradually  calling  in  the  assignats — ^in- 
creasing the  branch  mints  to  fourteen,  and  lim- 
iting the  Bank  of  France  to  an  issue  of  large 
notes — five  hundred  francs  and  upwards.  This 
simple  process  produced  these  results,  and  thus 
stands  the  French  currency  at  this  day ;  for  the 
nation  has  had  the  wisdom  to  leave  untouched 
the  financial  system  of  Bonaparte. 

I  have  repeatedly  given  it  as  my  opinion — 
many  of  my  speeches  declare  it — ^that  the 
French  currency  is  the  best  in  the  world.  It 
has  hard  money  for  the  government ;  hard  mo- 
ney for  the  common  dealings  of  the  people ;  and 
la^  notes  for  large  transactions.  This  curren- 
cy has  enabled  France  to  stand  two  invasions, 
the  ravaging  of  300,000  men,  two  changes  of  dy- 
nasty, and  the  payment  of  a  milliard  of  contri- 
butions ;  and  idl  without  any  conunotion  or  re- 
vulsion in  trade.  It  has  saved  her  from  the 
revulsions  which  have  afflicted  England  and  our 
America  £6r  so  many  years.    It  has  saved  her 


64 


THIRTT  YEARS*  VIEW 


from  ezpansiona,  contractions,  and  ndnonB  fluo- 
tnations  of  price.  It  has  sayed  her,  for  near 
Ibrty  years,  from  a  debate  on  currency.  It  has 
saved  her  eren  from  the  knowledge  of  oar  sweet- 
scented  phrases:  "sound  currency — unsound 
currency ;  plethoric,  dropsical,  inflated,  bloated ; 
the  money  market  tight  to-day — ^a  little  easier 
this  mornings"  and  all  such  verbiage,  which 
the  haberdashers'  boys  repeat.  It  has  saved 
France  from  even  a  discussion  on  currency; 
'  while  in  England,  and  with  us,  it  is  banks ! 
banks!  banks! — morning,  noon,  and  night; 
breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper ;  levant,  and  cou- 
chant;  sitting,  or  standmg ;  at  home,  or  abroad ; 
steamboat,  or  railroad  car ;  in  Congress,  or  out 
of  Congress,  it  is  all  the  same  thing :  banks — 
banks — banks;  currency — currency — curren- 
cy ;  meaning,  all  the  while,  paper  money  and 
shin-plasters;  until  our  very  brains  seem  as 
if  they  would  be  converted  into  lampblack  and 
rags. 

The  bill  before  the  Senate  dispenses  with  the 
fturther  use  of  banks  as  depositories  of  the  pub- 
lic moneys.  In  that  it  has  my  hearty  concur- 
rence. Four  times  heretofore,  and  on  four  dif- 
ferent occasions,  I  have  made  propositions  to 
accomplish  a  part  of  the  same  purpose.  First^ 
in  proposing  an  amendment  to  the  deposit  bill 
of  1836,  by  which  the  mint,  and  the  branch 
mints,  were  to  be  included  in  the  list  of  deposi- 
tories; Koondly^  in  proposing  that  the  public 
m(meys  here,  at  the  seat  of  Government,  should 
be  kept  and  paid  out  by  the  Treasurer ;  thirdly^ 
by  proposing  that  a  preference,  in  receiving  the 
deposits,  should  be  given  to  such  banks  as  should 
cease  to  be  banks  of  circulation ;  fourthly^  in  op- 
poshig  the  establishment  of  a  bank  agency  in 
Missouri,  and  proposing  that  the  moneys  there 
should  be  drawn  direct  from  the  hands  of  the 
receivers.  Three  of  these  propositions  are  now 
included  in  the  bill  before  the  Senate ;  and  the 
whole  object  at  which  they  partially  aimed  is 
folly  embraced.  I  am  for  the  measure — ^ftdly, 
cordially,  earnestly  for  it 

Congress  has  a  sacred  dnty  to  perform  in  re- 
forming the  finances,  and  the  currency ;  for  the 
rain  of  both  has  resulted  from  federal  legisla- 
tion, and  federal  administration.  The  States  at 
the  formation  of  the  constitution,  delivered  a 
solid  currency — ^I  will  not  say  sound,  for  that 
word  implies  snbject  to  unsoundness,  to  rotten- 
ness, and  to  death— but  they  delivered  a  solid 


currency,  one  not  liable  to  disease,  to  this  fede- 
ral government  They  started  the  new  govern- 
ment fidr  upon  gold  and  silver.  The  first  act 
of  Congress  attested  this  great  &ct ;  for  it  made 
the  revenues  payable  in  gold  and  silver  coin 
only.  Thus  the  States  delivered  a  solid  cur- 
rency to  this  government,  and  they  reserved 
the  same  curr6n<7'  for  themselves;  and  they 
provided  constitutional  sanctions  to  guard  both. 
The  thmg  to  be  saved,  and  the  power  to  save  it, 
was  given  to  this  government  by  the  States ; 
and  in  the  hands  of  this  government  it  became 
deteriorated.  The  first  great  error  was  General 
Hamilton's  construction  of  the  act  of  1789,  by 
which  he  nullified  that  act,  and  overturned  the 
statute  and  the  constitution  together.  The 
next  great  error  was  the  establishment  of  a  nsr 
tional  bank  of  circulation,  with  authority  to  pay 
all  the  public  dues  in  its  own  paper.  This  con- 
firmed the  overthrow  of  the  constitution,  and 
of  the  statute  c^  1789 ;  and  it  set  the  fatal  ex- 
ample to  the  States  to  make  banks,  and  to  re- 
ceive their  paper  for  public  dues,  as  the  United 
States  had  done.  This  was  the  origin  of  the 
evil— this  the  origin  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
solid  currency  which  the  States  had  delivered  to 
the  federal  government  It  was  the  Hamilto- 
uian  policy  that  did  the  mischief;  and  the  state 
of  things  in  1837,  is  the  natural  fruit  of  that 
policy.  It  is  time  for  us  to  quit  it — ^to  return 
to  the  constitution  and  the  statute  of  1789,  and 
to  confine  the  federal  Treasury  to  the  hard  mo- 
ney which  was  intended  for  it. 

I  repeat,  this  is  a  measure  of  reform,  wor- 
thy to  be  called  a  reformation.  It  goes  back  to 
a  fundamental  abuse,  nearly  coeval  with  the 
foundation  of  the  government  Two  epodia 
have  occurred  for  the  reformation  of  this  abuse ; 
one  was  lost,  the  other  is  now  in  jeopardy. 
Mr.  Madison's  administration  committed  a  great 
error  at  the  expiration  of  the  charter  of  the 
first  Bank  of  the  United  States,  in  not  reviving 
the  currency  of  the  constitution  for  the  federal 
Treasury,  and  especially  the  gold  currency. 
That  error  threw  the  Treasury  back  upon  the 
local  bank  paper.  This  paper  quickly  foiled, 
and  out  of  that  failure  grew  the  second  United 
States  Bank.  Those  who  put  down  the  second 
United  States  Bank,  warned  by  the  calamity, 
determined  to  avoid  the  error  of  M|^  Madison's 
administration :  they  determined  to  increase 
the  stod:  of  specie,  and  to  revive  the  gold  dr- 


ANNO  1887.    MABTIK  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


65 


enlatioii,  which  had  been  dead  for  thirty  years. 
The  aocamuktion  of  eighty  miUiona  in  the  brief 
space  of  five  years,  fifteen  millions  of  it  in  gold, 
attest  the  sincerity  of  their  design,  and  the  4a- 
oUity  of  its  execution.  The  country  was  going 
on  at  the  rate  of  an  ayerage  increase  of  twelye 
millions  of  specie  per  annum,  when  the  general 
stoppages  of  the  banks  in  May  last^  the  expor- 
tation of  specie,  and  the  imposition  of  irredeem- 
able paper  upon  the  gOYemment  and  the  peo- 
ple, seemed  to  announce  the  total  fiulure  of  the 
plan.  But  it  was  a  seeming  only.  The  impe- 
tus given  to  the  spede  policy  still  prevails,  and 
five  millions  are  added  to  the  stock  during  the 
present  fiscal  year.  So  fiu-,  then,  as  the  coun- 
teraction of  the  goyemment  policy,  and  the 
suppression  of  the  constituticmal  currency,  might 
have  been  expected  to  result  from  that  stop- 
page, the  calculation  seems  to  be  in  a  fair  way 
to  be  disappointed.  The  spirit  of  the  people, 
and  our  hundred  millions  of  exportable  produce, 
are  giving  the  victory  to  the  glorious  policy  of 
our  late  illustrious  President  The  other  great 
consequences  expected  to  result  from  that  stop- 
page, namely,  the  recharter  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States^  the  change  of  administration, 
the  overthrow  of  the  republican  party,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  federal  dynasty,  all  seem  to 
be  in  the  same  &ir  way  to  total  miscarriage ; 
but  the  objects  are  too  H^»y.lmg  to  be  abandoned 
by  the  party  interested,  and  the  destruction  of 
the  finances  and  the  currency,  is  still  the  chei^ 
ished  road  to  success.  The  miscalled  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  the  soul  of  the  federal  dynas- 
ty, and  the  anchor  of  its  hopes — ^believed  by 
many  to  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  the  stop- 
pages in  May,  and  known  by  all  to  be  at  the 
head  of  non-resumption — ^now  displays  her  pol- 
icy on  this  floor ;  it  is  to  compel  the  repetition 
of  the  error  of  Mr.  Madison's  administration ! 
Knowmg  that  irom  the  repetition  of  this  error 
must  come  the  repetition  of  the  catastrophes  of 
1814, 1819,  and  1837 ;  and  out  of  these  cataa- 
trophes  to  extract  a  new  damor  for  the  revivi- 
fication of  herself.  This  is  her  line  of  conduct ; 
and  to  this  line,  the  conduct  of  all  her  friends 
conforms.  With  one  heart,  one  mind,  <me 
voice,  they  labor  to  cut  off  gold  and  silver  fit>m 
the  federal  government,  and  to  impose  paper 
upon  it !  they  hibor  to  deprive  it  of  the  keepmg 
of  its  own  revenues,  and  to  place  them  again 
where  they  have  been  so  often  lost !  This  is 
Vol.  II.— 5 


the  conduct  of  that  bank  and  its  friends.  Let 
us  imitate  their  zeal,  their  unanimity;  and  their 
perseverance.  The  amendment  and  the  bill, 
now  before  the  Senate,  embodies  our  policy. 
Let  us  cany  them,  and  the  republic  is  safe. 

The  extra  session  had  been  called  to  relieve 
the  distress  of  the  federal  treasury,  and  had 
done  so  by  authorizing  an  issue  of  treasury 
notes.  That  object  being  accomplished,  and 
the  great  measures  for  the  divorce  of  Bank  and 
State,  and  for  the  sole  use  of  gold  and  silver  in 
federal  payments,  having  been  recommended, 
and  commenced,  the  session  adjourned. 


CHAPTEB   XVI. 

FIBST  BEOULAfi  SESSION  XTNDEB  MB.  TAN  BU- 
BEN'S  ADMINIBTBATION :  HIS  ME88AGB. 

A  BRIEF  interval  of  two  months  only  inter- 
vened between  the  adjournment  of  the  called  ses- 
sion and  the  meeting  of  the  regular  one ;  and  the 
general  state  of  the  public  affidrs,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  being  essentially  the  same  at  both 
periods,  left  no  new  or  extraordinary  measures 
for  the  President  to  recommend.  With  foreign 
powers  we  were  on  good  terms,  the  settlement 
of  all  our  long-fitanding  complaints  under  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  administration  having  left  us 
free  from  the  foreign  controversies  which  gave 
trouble ;  and  on  that  head  the  message  had  lit- 
tle but  what  was  agreeable  to  conmranicate. 
Its  topics  were  principally  confined  to  home 
affiurs,  and  that  part  of  these  affairs  which  were 
connected  with  the  banks.  That  of  the  United 
States,  as  it  still  called  itself^  gave  a  new  spe- 
cies of  disregard  of  moral  and  legal  obligation, 
and  presented  a  new  mode  of  depraving  the 
currency  and  endangering  property  and  con- 
tracts, by  continuing  to  issue  and  to  use  the 
notes  of  the  expired  institution.  Its  currency 
was  still  that  of  the  deftmct  bank.  It  used  the 
dead  notes  of  that  institution,  for  which,  of 
course,  neither  bank  was  liable.  They  were 
called  resurrection  notes ;  and  their  use,  besides 
the  injury  to  the  currency  and  danger  to  prop- 
erty, was  a  high  contempt  and  defiance  of  the 
authority  which  had  created  it;  and  called  for 
the  attention  of  the  federal  government.    The 


66 


THIRTr  TEABS'  VUfiW. 


President,  therefore,  thus  fonnally  brought  the 
procedure  to  the  notice  of  Congress : 

"  It  was  my  hope  that  nothing  would  occur  to 
make  necessary,  on  this  occasion,  any  allusion 
to  the  late  national  bank.  There  are  circum- 
stances, however,  connected  with  the  present 
state  of  its  afiairs  that  bear  so  directly  on  the 
duuucter  of  the  sovemment  and  the  welfare  of 
the  citizen,  that  Ishould  not  feel  myself  excused 
in  neglecting  to  notice  them.  The  charter  which 
terminated  its  banking  privileges  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1836,  continued  its  corporate  powers 
two  years  more,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  closing 
its  affairs,  with  authority  ^  to  use  the  corporate 
name,  style,  and  capacity,  for  the  purpose  of 
suits  for  a  final  settlement  and  liquidation  of  the 
afiairs  and  acts  of  the  corporation,  and  for  the 
sale  and  disposition  of  their  estate,  real,  per- 
sonal and  mixed,  but  for  no  other  purpose  or  in 
any  other  manner  whatsoever.'  Just  before 
the  banking  privileges  ceased,  its  effects  were 
transferred  by  the  l^k  to  a  new  State  institu- 
tion then  recently  incorporated,  in  trust,  for  the 
discharge  of  its  debts  and  the  settlement  of  its 
affairs.  With  this  trustee,  by  authority  of  Con- 
gress, an  adjustment  was  subsequently  made  of 
the  large  interest  which  the  government  had  in 
the  st^  of  the  institution.  The  manner  in 
which  a  trust  unexpectedly  created  upon  the 
act  granting  the  charter,  and  involving  such 
great  public  interests,  has  been  executed,  would, 
under  any  circumstances,  be  a  fit  subject  of  in- 
quiry ;  but  much  more  does  it  deserve  your  at- 
tention, when  it  embraces  the  redemption  of 
obligations  to  which  the  authority  and  credit  of 
theUnited  States  have  given  value.  The  two 
years  allowed  are  now  nearly  at  an  end.  It  is 
well  understood  that  the  trustee  has  not  re- 
deemed and  cancelled  the  outstanding  notes  of 
the  bank^  but  has  reissued,  and  is  actually  re- 
issuing, smce  the  3d  of  March,  1836,  the  notes 
which  have  been  received  by  it  to  a  vast  amount. 
Aooording  to  its  own  official  statement,  Bo*late 
as  the  Ist  of  October  last,  nineteen  months 
after  the  banking  privileges  given  by  the  charter 
had  expired,  it  luui  under  its  control  uncancelled 
notes  of  the  Ute  Bank  of  the  United  States  to 
the  amount  of  twenty-seven  millions  five  hun-. 
dred  and  sixty-one  thousand  ei^ht  hundred  and 
sixty-six  dollars,  of  which  six  millions  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  sixty-one  clollars  were  in  actual  circu- 
lation, one  million  four  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-seven  dollars 
at  State  bank  agencies,  and  three  millions  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety  dollars  in 
transitu;  thus  showing  that  upwards  of  ten 
millions  and  a  half  of  the  notes  of  the  old  bank 
were  then  still  kept  outstanding.    The  impro- 

Sriety  of  this  procedure  is  obvious :  it  being  the 
nty  of  the  trustee  to  cancel  and  not  to  put 
form  the  notes  of  an  institution,  whose  oonoemB 
it  bad  undertaken  to  wind  up.    If  the  trustee 


has  a  right  to  reissae  these  notes  now,  I  can  see 
no  reason  why  it  may  not  continue  to  do  so  after 
the  expiration  of  the  two  years.  As  no  one 
could  have  anticipated  a  course  so  extraordinary, 
the  prohibitory  clause  of  the  charter  above 
quoted  was  not  accompanied  by  any  penalfy  or 
other  special  provision  for  enforcing  it;  nor 
have  we  any  general  law  for  the  prevention  of 
similar  acts  in  future. 

"  But  it  is  not  in  this  view  of  the  subject  alone 
that  your  interposition  is  required.  The  United 
States,  in  settling  with  the  trustee  for  thw 
stock,  have  withdrawn  their  funds  from  their 
former  direct  ability  to  the  creditors  of  the  old 
bank,  yet  notes  of  the  institution  continue  to  be 
sent  forth  in  its  name,  and  apparently  upon  the 
authority  of  the  United  States.  The  transac- 
tions connected  with  the  employment  of  the 
bills  of  the  old  bank  are  of  vast  extent ;  and 
should  they  result  unfortunately,  the  interests 
of  individuals  majr  be  deeply  compromised. 
Without  undertaking  to  decide  how  far,  or  in 
what  form,  if  any,  the  trustee  could  be  made 
liable  for  notes  which  contain  no  obligation  on 
its  part ;  or  the  old  bank,  for  such  as  are  put 
in  circulation  after  the  expiration  of  its  char- 
ter, and  without  its  authority ;  or  the  govern- 
ment for  indemnity,  in  case  of  loss,  the  question 
still  presses  itself  upon  your  consideration, 
whether  it  is  consistent  with  duty  and  good 
faith  on  the  part  of  the  government,  to  witness 
this  proceeding  without  a  single  effort  to  arrest 
it" 

On  the  subject  of  the  public  lands,  and  the 
most  judicious  mode  of  disposing  of  them — a 
question  of  so  much  interest  to  the  new  States 
— the  message  took  the  view  of  those  who 
looked  to  the  domain  less  as  a  source  of  revenue 
than  as  a  means  of  settling  and  improving  the 
country.  He  recommended  graduated  prices 
according  to  the  value  of  the  different  classes  of 
lands  in  order  to  fiicUitate  their  sale^  and  a 
prospective  permanent  pre-emption  act  to  give 
encouragement  to  settlers.  On  the  first  of 
these  points  he  said : 

'^  Hitherto,  after  being  offered  at  public  sale, 
lands  have  neen  disposed  of  at  one  uniform 
price,  whatever  difference  there  might  be  in 
their  intrinsic  value.  The  leading  considera- 
tions ui^  in  favor  of  the  measure  referred  to, 
are,  that  in  almost  all  the  land  districts,  and  par* 
ticularly  in  those  in  which  the  lands  have  been 
long  surveyed  and  exposed  to  sale,  there  are 
still  remaining  numerous  and  large  tracts  of 
every  gradation  of  value,  from  the  government 
price  downwards ;  that  tnese  lands  will  not  bo 
purchased  at  the  government  price,  so  long  as 
better  can  be  conveniently  obtained  for  the  same 
amount ;  that  there  are  largo  tracts  which  even 
the  improvements  of  the  acyacent  lands  will 


ANNO  1888.    UAKTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


67 


nerer  raise  to  that  price ;  and  that  the  present 
uniform  price,  combined  with  their  irregular 
Talue,  operates  to  preyent  a  desirable  oompactr 
ness  of  settlement  in  the  new  States,  and  to  re- 
tard the  Aill  development  of  that  wise  policy  on 
which  our  land  system  is  founded,  to  the  injury 
not  only  of  the  several  States  where  the  lands 
lie,  but  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole. 

"  The  remedy  proposed  has  been  a  reduction  of 
prices  according  to  the  length  of  time  the  lands 
have  been  in  market,  without  reference  to  any 
other  circumstances.     The  certainty  that  the 
efflux  of  time  would  not  always  in  such  cases, 
and  perhaps  not  even  generally,  furnish  a  true 
criterion  of  value ;  and  the  probability  that  per- 
sons residing  in  the  vicinity,  as  the  period  for 
the  reduction  of  prices  approached,  would  post- 
pone purchases  they  would  otherwise  make,  for 
the  purpose  of  availing  themselves  of  the  lower 
price,  with  other  considerations  of  a  similar 
character,  have  hitherto  been  successfully  urged 
to  defeat  the  graduation  upon  time.    May  not 
all  reasonable  desires  upon  this  subject  be  satis- 
fied without  encountering  any  of  these  objec- 
tions ?    All  will  concede  the  abstract  principle, 
that  the  price  of  the  public  lands  should  be  pro- 
portioned to  their  relative  value,  so  fiur  as  that 
can  be  accomplished  without  departing  from  the 
rule,  heretofore  observed,  requiring  fixed  prices 
in  cases  of  private  entries.    The  difficulty  of  the 
subject  seems  to  lie  in  the  mode  of  ascertaining 
what  that  value  is.    Would  not  the  safest  plan 
be  that  which  has  been  adopted  by  many  of  the 
States  as  the  basis  of  taxation ;  an  actual  valua- 
tion of  lands,  and  classification  of  them  into  dif- 
ferent rates  1     Would  it  not  be  practicable  and 
expedient  to  cause  the  relative  value  of  the  pub- 
lic lands  in.  the  old  districts,  which  have  been 
for  a  certain  length  of  time  in  market,  to  be  ap- 
praised, and  clawed  into  two  or  more  rates  be- 
low the  present  minimum  price,  bv  the  officers 
now  employed  in  this  branch  of  the  public  ser- 
vice, or  in  any  other  mode  deemed  preferable, 
and  to  make  those  prices  permanent,  if  upon  the 
coming  in  of  the  report  they  shall  prove  satis- 
factory to  Congress?    Cannot  all  the  objects 
of  graduation  be  accomplished  in  this  way,  and 
the  objections  which  have  hitherto  been  urged 
against  it  avoided  ?    It  would  seem  to  me  that 
such  a  step,  with  a  restriction  of  the  sales  to 
limited  quantities,  and  for  actual  improvement, 
would  be  free  from  lUl  just  exception.'^ 

A  permanent  prospective  pre-emption  law  was 
cogently  recommended  as  a  measure  just  in  it- 
self to  the  settlers,  and  not  injurious  to  the  pub- 
lic TreaflUiy,  as  experience  had  shown  that  the 
auction  system— that  of  selling  to  the  highest 
bidder  above  the  prescribed  minimum  price — 
had  produced  in  its  aggregate  but  a  few  cents 
on  the  acre  above  the  minimum  price.  On  this 
point  he  said : 


"  A  large  portion  of  our  citizens  have  seated 
themselves  on  the  public  lands,  without  authori- 
ty, since  the  passage  of  the  last  pre-emption  law, 
and  now  ask  the  enactment  of  another,  to  ena- 
ble them  to  retain  the  lands  occupied,  upon  pay- 
ment of  the  minimum  government  pnoe.  They 
ask  that  which  has  been  repeatedly  granted  be- 
fore. If  the  future  may  be  judged  of  by  the  past, 
little  harm  can  be  done  to  the  interests  of  the 
Treasury  by  yielding  to  their  request  Upon 
a  critical  examination,  it  is  found  that  the  lands 
sold  at  the  public  sales  since  the  introduction 
of  cash  pajrments  in  1820,  have  produced,  on  an 
average,  the  net  revenue  of  only  six  cents  an 
acre  more  than  the  minimum  government  price. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  future  sales 
will  be  more  productive^  The  government, 
therefore,  has  no  adequate  pecuniary  interest  to 
induce  it  to  drive  these  people  from  the  lands 
they  occupy,  for  the  purpose  of  selling  them  to 
others." 

This  wise  recommendation  has  since  been 
carried  into  effect,  and  pre-emptive  rights  are 
now  admitted  in  all  cases  where  settlements  are 
made  upon  lands  to  which  the  Indian  title  shall 
have  been  extinguished ;  and  the  graduation  of 
the  price  of  the  public  lands,  though  a  measure 
long  delayed,  yet  prevailed  in  the  end,  and  was 
made  as  originally  proposed,  by  redactions  ac- 
cording to  the  length  of  time  the  land  had  been 
offered  at  sale.  Beginning  at  the  TniniTnum  pnoe 
of  $1  25  per  acre,  the  reduction  of  price  'went 
down  through  a  descending  scale,  according  to 
time,  as  low  as  12^  cents  per  acre.  But  this 
was  long  after. 


CHAPTEE  XVII. 

PENNSYLVANIA  BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES . 
ITS  USE  OF  THE  DEFUNCT  NOTES  OF  THE  EX- 
PIRED INSTITUTION. 

HisTORT  gives  many  instances  of  armies  re* 
fusing  to  be  disbanded,  and  remaining  in  arms 
in  defiance  of  the  authority  which  created  them ; 
but  the  example  of  this  bank  presents,  probably, 
the  first  instance  in  which  a  great  moneyed  cor- 
poration refused  to  be  dissolved — refused  to 
cease  its  operations  after  its  legal  existence  had 
expired ; — and  continued  its  corporate  transac- 
tions as  if  in  full  life.  It  has  already  been  shown 
that  its  proviso  charter,  at  the  end  of  a  local 
railroad  act,  made  no  difference  in  its  conditionr^ 


68 


THIRT7  YEABff  VIEW. 


that  it  went  on  exactly  as  before.  Its  use  of 
the  defunct  notes  of  the  expired  institution  was 
a  further  instance  of  this  conduct,  transcending 
any  thing  conceived  o^  and  presenting  a  case  of 
danger  to  the  public,  and  defiance  of  goyemment, 
which  the  President  had  deemed  it  his  duty  to 
bring  to  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  ask  a 
remedy  for  a  proceeding  so  criminal.  Congress 
acted  on  the  recommendation,  and  a  bill  was 
brought  in  to  make  the  repetition  of  the  of- 
fence a  high  misdemeanor,  and  the  officers  and 
managers  of  the  institution  personally  and  in- 
diridually  liable  for  its  commission.  In  sup- 
port of  this  bill,  Mr.  Buchanan  gave  the  fullest 
and  clearest  account  of  this  almost  incredible 
misconduct.    He  said : 

^  The  charter  of  the  late  Bank  of  the  United 
States  expired,  by  its  own  limitation,  on  the  3d 
of  March,  1836.  After  that  day,  it  could  issue 
no  notes,  discount  no  new  paper,  and  exercise 
none  of  the  usual  functions  of  a  bank.  For 
two  years  thereafter,  until  the  3d  of  Mardi, 
1838,  it  was  merely  permitted  to  use  its  corpo- 
rate name  and  capacity  ^for  the  purpose  of 
suits  for  the  final  settlement  and  liquidation  of 
the  afiairs  and  accounts  of  the  corporation,  and 
for  the  sale  and  disposition  of  their  estate,  real, 
personal,  and  mixed ;  but  not  for  any  other 
purpose,  or  in  any  other  manner^  whaUoever? 
Congress  had  granted  the  bank  no  power  to 
make  a  Toluntary  assignment  of  its  property 
to  any  corporation  or  any  individuaL  On  the 
contrary,  the  plain  meaning  of  the  charter  was, 
that  all  the  anairs  of  the  institution  should  be 
wound  up  by  its  own  president  and  directors. 
It  receiyed  no  authority  to  delegate  this  impor- 
tant trust  to  others,  and  yet  what  has  it  done  ? 
On  the  second  day  of  March,  1836,  one  day  be- 
fore the  charter  had  expired,  this  yery  president 
and  these  directors  assigned  all  the  property 
and  effects  of  the  old  corporation  to  the  Penn- 
syl^ania  Bank  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
same  day.  this  latter  bank  accepted  tiie  assign- 
ment and  agreed  to  'pay,  satisfy,  and  discha^ 
all  oebts,  contracts,  and  engagements,  owing, 
entered  into,  or  made  by  this  [the  ola]  bank, 
as  the  same  shall  become  due  and  payable,  ana 
fidJU  and  execute  all  trusts  and  obligations 
^whatsoever  arising  from  its  transactions,  or 
from  any  of  them,  so  that  every  creditor  or 
rightful  claimant  shall  be  fuUy  satisfied.'  By 
its  own  agreement^  it  has  thus  expressly  cre- 
ated itself  a  trustee  of  the  old  banl^  But  this 
was  not  necessary  to  confer  upon  it  that  char- 
acter. By  the  bare  act  of  accepting  the  assign- 
ment, it  became  responsible,  under  the  laws  of 
the  land,  for  the  perfi>rmance  of  all  the  duties 
and  trusts  required  by  the  old  charter.  Under 
the  drcumstances,  it  cannot  make  the  slightest 
proCenoe  of  any  want  of  notion 


^Having  assumed   this   responsibility,  the 
duty  of  the  new  bank  was  so  plain  tlut  it 
could  not  have  been  mistaken.    It  had  a  double 
character  to  sustain.    Under  the  charter  from 
Pennsylvania,  it  became  a  new  banking  corpo- 
ration ;  whilst)  under  the  assignment  &om  the 
old  bonk,  it  became  a  trustee  to  wind  up  the 
concerns  of  that  institution  under  the  Act  of 
Congress.    These  two  characters  were  in  their 
nature  separate  and  distinct,  and  never  ought 
to  have  been  blended.    For  each  of  these  pur- 
poses it  ought  to  have  kept  a  separate  set  of 
books.    Above  all,  as  the  privU^  of  circulating 
bank  notes,  and  thus  creating  a  paper  currency, 
is  that  function  of  a  bank  which  most  deeply 
and  vitally  afiects  the  community,  the  new  bank 
ought  to  have  cancelled  or  destroyed  all  the 
notes  of  the  old  bank  which  it  found  in  its  pos- 
session on  the  4th  of  March,  1836,  and  ought 
to  have  redeemed  the  remainder  at  its  counter, 
as  they  were  demanded  by  the  holders,  and 
then  destroyed  them.    This  obligation  no  sen- 
ator has  attempted  to  doubt  or  to  deny.    But 
what  was  the  course  of  tne  bank?    It  has 
grossly  violated  both  the  old  and  the  new  char- 
ten    It  at  once  declared  independence  of  both, 
and  appropriated  to  itself  all  the  notes  of  the 
old  b«n]^ — ^not  only  those  which  were  then 
still  in  drculation^  but  those  which  had  been 
redeemed  before  it  accepted  the  assignment, 
and  were  then  lying  dead  in  its  vaults.    I  have 
now  before  me  the  first  monthly  statement 
which  was  ever  made  by  the  Bank  to  the  Au- 
ditor-general of  Pennsylvania.    It  is  dated  on 
the  ^  of  April,  1836,  and  signed  J.  Cowper- 
thwaite,  acting  cashier.    In  this  statement^  the 
Bank   charges    itself    with    'notes    issued,' 
$36,620,420  16;  whilst,  in  its  cash  account, 
idong  with  its  specie  and  the  notes  of  State 
ban&,  it  credits  itself  with  '  notes  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United   States  and  offices,'  on  hand, 
916,794,713  71.     It  thus  seized   these  dead 
notes  to  the  amount  of  $16,794713  71.  and 
transformed  them  into  cash ;  whilst  the  aiffei^ 
ence  between  those  on  hand  and  those  issued, 
eoual  to  $19,825,706  45,  was  the  circulation 
which  the  new  bank  boasted  it  had  inherited 
from  the  old.    It  thus,  in  an  instant,  appropri- 
ated to  itseli^  and  adopted  as  its  own  circula- 
tion, all  the  notes  and  all  the  illegal  branch 
drafts  of  the  old  bank  which  were  then  in  exist- 
ence.   Its  boldness  was  equal  to  its  utter  dis- 
regard of  law.    In  this  first  return,  it  not  only- 
proclaimed  to  the  Legislature  ana  people  of 
Pennsylvania  that  it  had  disregarded  its  trust 
as  assignee  of  the  old  Bank,  by  seizing  upon 
the  whole  of  the  old  circulation  and  converting 
it  to  its  own  use,  but  that  it  had  violated  one 
of  the  fundamental  provisions  of  its  new  char- 
ter." 

Mr.  Calhoun  spoke  chiefly  to  the  question  of 
the  right  of  Congress  to  pass  a  bill  of  the  tenor 
proposed.    Several  senators  denied  that  right : 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


69 


others  supported  it— among  them  Mr.  Wright, 
Mr.  Gnuulj,  Mr.  William  H.  Roane,  Mr.  John 
M.  Niles,  Mr.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  and  Mr.  Gal- 
honn.  Some  passages  from  the  speech  of  the 
latter  are  here  giTen* 

^  He  [Mr.  Calhoun]  held  that  the  right  pro- 
posed to  be  exercised  in  this  case  rested  on  the 
general  power  of  I^;islation  conferred  on  Con> 
gress,  which  embraces  not  only  the  power  oi 
makmg,  but  that  of  repealing  laws,  ft  was,  in 
fact  a  portion  of  the  repealins  power.  No  one 
could  doubt  the  existence  of  the  right  to  do 
either,  and  that  the  right  of  repealing  extends 
as  well  to  unconstitutional  as  constitutional 
laws.  The  case  as  to  the  former  was,  in  fSiu^t, 
stronger  than  the  latter ;  for,  whether  a  consti- 
tutional law  should  be  repealed  or  not,  was  a 
question  of  expediency,  which  left  us  free  to  act 
according  to  our  discretion ;  while,  in  the  case 
of  an  unconstitutional  law,  it  was  a  matter  of 
obligation  and  duty,  leaving  no  option ;  and  the 
more  unconstitutional,  the  more  imperious  the 
obligation  and  duty.  Thus  far^  there  could  be 
no  doubt  nor  diyersity  of  opimon.  But  there 
are  many  Uws,  the  effects  of  which  do  not  cease 
with  their  repeal  or  expiration,  and  which  re- 
quire some  additional  act  on  our  part  to  arrest 
or  undo  them.  Such,  for  instance,  is  the  one  in 
question.  The  charter  of  the  late  bank  expired 
some  time  ago,  but  its  notes  are  still  in  exist- 
ence, freely  circulating  from  hand  to  hand,  and 
reissued  and  banked  on  bv  a  bank  chartered  by 
the  State  of  Pennsylyania,  into  whose  posses- 
sion the  notes  of  the  old  bank  have  passed.  In 
a  word,  our  name  and  authority  are  used  ahnost 
as  freely  for  banking  purposes  as  they  were 
before  the  expiration  of  the  charter  of  the  late 
bank.  Now,  he  held  that  the  right  of  arresting 
or  undoing  these  afteiveffects  rested  on  the 
same  principle  as  the  right  of  repealing  a  law, 
and  like  tiiat,  embraces  unconstitutK>naI  as 
well  as  constitutional  acts,  superadding,  in  the 
case  of  the  former,  obligation  and  duty  to  right 
We  have  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  this 
principle  in  the  case  of  the  lUien  and  sedition 
acts,  which  are  now  conceded  on  all  sides  to 
have  been  unconstitutional.  Like  the  act  incor^ 
porating  the  late  bank,  they  expired  by  their 
own  limitation ;  and,  like  it,  also,  their  effects 
continued  after  the  period  of  their  expiration. 
Individuals  had  been  tried,  convicted,  fined,  and 
imprisoned  under  them ;  but,  so  far  was  their 
unconstitutionality  from  being  regarded  as  an 
impediment  to  the  right  of  arresting  or  undoing 
these  effects,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  felt  himself 
compelled  on  that  very  account  to  pardon  those 
who  had  been  fined  and  convicted  under  their 
provisions,  and  we  have  at  this  session  passed, 
on  the  same  ground,  an  act  to  refund  the  money 
paid  by  one  of  the  sufferers  under  them.  The 
bill  is  limited  to  those  only  who  are  the  trus- 
tees, or  agents  for  winding  up  the  concerns  of 
the  late  bank,  and  it  is  those,  and  those  only. 


who  are  subject  to  the  penalties  of  the  bill  fer 
reisBning  its  notes.  They  are.  pro  tanto^  our 
ofOoers,  and,  to  that  extent,  subject  to  our  juris- 
diction, and  liable  to  have  their  acts  controlled, 
as  far  as  they  relate  to  the  trust  or  agency  con- 
fided to  them ;  just  as  much  so  as  receivers  or 
collectors  of  the  revenue  would  be.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  we  could  prohibit  them  from 
passing  off  any  description  of  paper  currenqr 
that  might  come  into  their  hands  in  their  offi- 
cial diancter.  Nor  is  the  right  less  clear  in 
reference  to  the  persons  who  may  be  compre- 
hended in  this  bill.  Whether  Mr.  Biddle  or 
others  connected  with  this  bank  are,  in  fact, 
trustees,  or  agents,  within  the  meaning  of  the 
bill,  is  not  a  question  for  us  to  decide.  They 
are  not  named,  nor  referred  to  by  description. 
The  bill  is  very  properly  drawn  up  in  general 
terms,  so  as  to  comprehend  all  cases  of  the 
kind,  and  would  include  the  banks  of  the  Dis- 
trict, should  Congress  refuse  to  re-charter 
them.  It  is  left  to  the  court  and  jury,  to 
whom  it  properly  belong^  to  decide,  when  a  case 
comes  up^  whether  the  party  is,  or  is  not,  a 
trustee,  or  agent;  and^  of  course,  whether  he 
is,  or  is  not,  included  m  the  provisions  of  the 
bilL  If  he  is,  he  will  be  subject  to  its  penal- 
ties, but  not  otherwise ;  and  it  cannot  possibly 
affect  the  question  of  the  constitutiomdity  of 
the  bill,  whether  Mr.  Biddle,  and  others  con- 
nected with  him,  are,  or  are  not^  comprehended 
in  Its  provisions,  and  subject  to  its  penalties." 

The  bill  was  severe  in  its  enactments,  pre- 
scribing both  fine  and  imprisonment  for  the  re- 
petition of  the  offence — ^tiie  fine  not  to  exceed 
ten  thousand  dollars — ^the  imprisonment  not  to 
be  less  than  one  nor  more  than  five  years.  It 
also  gave  a  preventive  remedy  in  authorizing  in- 
junctions from  the  federal  courts  to  prevent  the 
circulation  of  such  defunct  notes,  and  proceed- 
ings in  chancery  to  compel  their  surrender  for 
cancellation.  And  to  this  "complexion"  had 
the  arrogant  institution  come  which  so  lately 
held  itself  to  be  a  paioer,  and  a  great  one,  in  the 
government — now  borne  on  the  statute  book  as 
criminally  liable  for  a  high  misdemeanor,  and 
giving  its  name  to  a  new  species  of  offence  in 
the  criminal  catalogue— corAumer  and  resurrec- 
tionist of  defunct  notes.  And  thus  ended  the 
last  question  between  the  federal  government 
and  this,  once  so  powerful  moneyed  corpora- 
tion ;  and  certainly  any  one  who  reads  the  his- 
tory of  that  bank  as  faithfully  shown  in  our 
parliamentary  history,  and  briefly  exhibited  in 
tins  historic  View,  can  ever  wish  to  see  another 
national  bank  established  in  our  country,  or 
any  fhture  connection  of  any  kind  between  the 
government  and  the  bonks.    The  last  struggle 


70 


THIRTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


between  it  and  the  government  was  now  over 
^ust  seven  years  since  that  struggle  began : 
but  its  further  conduct  will  extort  a  further 
notice  from  history. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

FLORIDA  INDIAN  WAR:  ITS  ORIGIN   AND  OON- 

Ducrr. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  troublesome,  expen- 
sive  and  unmanageable  Indian  wars  in  which 
the  United  States  had  been  engaged ;  and  from 
the  length  of  time  which  it  continued,  the 
amount  of  money  it  cost,  and  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  results,  it  became  a  convenient  handle 
of  attack  upon  the  administration ;  and  in  which 
party  spirit^  in  pursuit  of  its  object,  went  the 
length  of  injuring  both  individual  and  national 
character.  It  continued  about  seven  years — as 
loDg  as  the  revolutionary  war — cost  some  thirty 
millions  of  money — and  baffled  the  exertions  of 
several  generals ;  recommenced  when  supposed 
to  be  finished ;  and  was  only  finally  terminated 
by  ^htmfnnfr  military  campaigns  into  an  armed 
occupation  by  settlers.  All  the  opposition 
presses  and  orators  took  hold  of  it,  and  made 
its  misfortunes  the  common  theme  of  invective 
and  declamation.  Its  origin  was  charged  to  the 
oppressive  conduct  of  the  administration — its 
protracted  length  to  their  imbecility — its  cost 
to  their  extravagance — its  defeats  to  the  want 
of  foresight  and  care.  The  Indians  stood  for  an 
innocent  and  persecuted  people.  Heroes  and 
patriots  were  made  of  their  chiefis.  Our  gene- 
rals and  troops  were  decried;  applause  was 
lavished  upon  a  handful  of  savages  who  could 
thus  defend  their  country;  and  corresponding 
censure  upon  successive  armies  which  could  not 
conquer  them.  All  this  going  incessantly  into 
the  Congress  debates  and  the  party  newspapers, 
was  injuring  the  administration  at  home,  and 
the  country  abroad ;  and,  by  dint  of  iteration 
and  reiteration,  stood  a  good  chance  to  become 
history,  and  to  be  handed  down  to  posterity. 
At  the  same  time  the  war  was  one  of  flagrant 
and  cruel  aggression  on  the  part  of  these  Indians. 
Their  removal  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi 
was  part  of  the  plan  for  the  general  removal  of 
all  the  Indians,  and  every  preparation  was  com- 


plete for  their  departure  by  their  own  agrae- 
ment,  when  it  was  interrupted  by  a  horrible 
act.  It  was  the  28th  day  of  December,  1835, 
that  the  United  States  agent  in  Florida,  and 
several  others,  were  suddenly  massacred  by  a 
party  under  Osceola,  who  had  just  been  at  the 
hospitable  table  with  them :  at  the  same  time 
the  sutler  and  others  were  attacked  as  they  sat 
at  table :  same  day  two  expresses  were  kiUed : 
and  to  crown  these  bloody  deeds,  the  same  day 
witnessed  the  destruction  of  Major  Dade's  com- 
mand of  112  men,  on  its  march  from  Tampa 
Bay  to  Withlacootchee.  All  these  massacres 
were  surprises,  the  result  of  concert,  and  exe- 
cuted as  such  upon  unsuspecting  victims.  The 
agent  (Mr.  Thompson),  and  some  friends  were 
shot  from  the  bushes  while  taking  a  walk  near 
his  house :  the  sutler  and  his  guests  were  shot 
at  the  dmncr  table:  the  express  riders  were 
waylaid,  and  shot  in  the  road :  Major  Dade's 
command  was  attacked  on  the  march,  by  an  un- 
seen foe,  overpowered,  and  killed  nearly  to  the 
last  man.  All  these  deadly  attacks  took  place 
on  the  same  day,  and  at  points  wide  apart — 
showing  that  the  plot  was  as  extensive  as  it  was 
secret,  and  cruel  as  it  was  treacherous ;  for  not  a 
soul  was  spared  in  either  of  the  four  relentleas 
attacks. 

It  was  two  days  after  the  event  that  an  in- 
fantry soldier  of  Major  Dade's  command,  ap- 
peared at  Fort  King,  on  Tampa  Bay,  from  which 
it  had  marched  six  days  before,  and  gave  infor- 
mation of  what  had  happened.  The  command 
was  on  the  march,  in  open  pine  woods,  tall  grass 
all  around,  and  a  swamp  on  the  left  flank.  The 
grass  concealed  a  treacherous  ambuscade.  The 
advanced  guard  had  passed,  and  was  cut  off. 
Both  the  advance  and  the  main  body  were  at- 
tacked at  the  same  moment,  but  divided  fi^>m 
each  other.  A  circle  of  fire  enclosed  each — fire 
from  an  invisible  foe.  To  stand,  was  to  be  shot 
down :  to  advance  was  to  charge  upon  concealed 
rifles.  But  it  was  the  only  course — was  brave- 
ly adopted — and  many  savages  thus  sprung  from 
their  coverts,  were  killed.  The  officers,  coura- 
geously exposing  themselves,  were  rapidly  shot 
— Major  Dade  early  in  the  action.  At  the  end 
of  an  hour  successive  charges  had  roused  the 
savages  from  the  grass,  (which  seemed  to  be 
alive  with  their  naked  and  painted  bodies,  yell- 
ing and  leaping,)  and  driven  beyond  the  range 
of  shot    But  the  command  was  too  much  weak- 


ANKO  1888.    MARTIN  YAH  BUREIT,  PRESIDENT. 


71 


ened  for  a  further  operation.  The  wounded 
were  too  numerous  to  be  carried  along:  too 
precious  to  be  left  behind  to  be  massacred.  The 
battle  ground  was  maintained,  and  a  small  band 
had  conquered  respite  from  attack :  but  to  ad- 
vance or  retreat  was  equally  impossible.  The 
only  resource  was  to  build  a  small  pen  of  pine 
logs,  cut  from  the  fbreetj  collect  the  wounded 
and  the  survivors  into  it^  as  into  a  little  fort, 
and  repulse  the  assailants  as  long  as  possible. 
This  was  done  till  near  sunset—the  action  hav- 
ixig  began  at  ten  in  the  morning.  By  that  time 
evexy  officer  was  dead  but  one,  and  he  despe- 
rately wounded,  and  helpless  on  the  ground. 
Only  two  men  remained  without  wounds,  and 
they  red  with  the  blood  of  others,  spirted  upon 
them,  or  stained  in  helping  the  helpless.  The 
little  pen  was  filled  with  the  dead  and  the  dying. 
The  firing  ceased.  The  expiring  lieutenant  told 
the  survivors  he  could  do  no  more  for  them, 
and  gave  them  leave  to  save  themselves  as  they 
could.  They  asked  his  advice.  He  gave  it  to 
them ;  and  to  that  advice  we  are  indebted  ibr 
the  only  report  of  that  bloody  day's  work.  He 
advised  them  all  to  lay  down  among  the  dead — 
to  remain  still— and  take  their  chance  of  bemg 
considered  dead.  This  advice  was  followed.  All 
became  still,  prostrate  and  motionless ;  and  the 
savages,  slowly  and  cautiously  approaching, 
were  a  long  time  before  they  would  venture 
within  the  ghastly  pen,  where  danger  might 
still  lurk  under  apparent  death.  A  squad  of 
about  forty  negroes—fugitives  fix>m  the  South- 
em  States,  more  savage  than  the  savage— were 
the  first  to  enter.  They  came  in  with  kniveb 
and  hatchets,  cutting  throats  and  splitting  skulls 
wherever  they  saw  a  sign  of  life.  To  make  sure 
of  skipping  no  one  alive,  all  were  pulled  and 
handled,  punched  and  kidced ;  and  a  groan  or 
movement,  an  opening  of  the  eye,  or  even  the 
involuntary  contraction  of  a  muscle,  was  an  in- 
vitation to  the  knife  and  the  tomahawk.  Only 
four  of  the  living  were  able  to  subdue  senssr 
tions,  bodily  and  mental,  and  remain  without 
sign  of  feeling  under  this  dreadful  ordeal ;  and 
two  of  these  received  stabs,  or  blows — as  many 
of  the  dead  did.  Lying  still  until  the  search 
was  over,  and  darkness  had  come  on,  and  the 
butchers  were  gone,  these  four  crept  firom  among 
their  dead  comrades  and  undertook  to  make 
their  way  back  to  Tampa  Bay— separating  into 
two  parties  for  greater  safety.    The  one  that 


came  in  first  had  a  narrow  escape.  Pursuing  a 
path  the  next  day,  an  Indian  on  horseback,  and 
with  a  rifle  across  the  saddle  bow,  met  them  full 
in  the  way.  To  separate,  and  take  the  chance 
of  a  divided  pursuit,  was  the  only  hope  for 
either:  and  they  struck  off  into  opposite  direo> 
tions.  The  one  to  the  right  was  pursued ;  and 
very  soon  the  sharp  crack  of  a  rifie  made  known 
his  fate  to  the  one  that  had  gone  to  the  left. 
To  him  it  was  a  warning,  that  his  comrade  be- 
ing despatched,  his  own  turn  came  next.  It 
was  open  pine  woods,  and  a  running,  or  stand- 
ing man,  visible  at  a  difitanoe.  The  Indian  on 
horseback  was  already  in  view.  Escape  by 
flight  was  impossible.  Concealment  in  the  grass, 
or  among  the  palmettos,  was  the  only  hope : 
and  this  was  tried.  The  man  laid  dose:  the 
Indian  rode  near  him.  He  made  cirdes  around, 
eyeing  the  ground  far  and  near.  Rising  in  his 
stirrups  to  get  a  wider  view,  and  seeiog  nothing, 
he  turned  the  head  of  his  horse  and  galloped 
off — the  poor  soldier  having  been  almost  under 
the  horse's  feet.  This  man,  thus  marvellously 
escaping,  was  the  first  to  bring  in  the  sad  re- 
port of  the  Dade  defeat — ^followed  soon  after  by 
two  others  with  its  melancholy  confirmation. 
And  these  were  the  only  reports  ever  received 
of  that  oompletest  of  defeats.  No  officer  sur- 
vived to  report  a  word.  All  were  killed  in  their 
places — ^men  and  officers,  each  in  his  place,  no 
one  breaking  ranks  or  giving  back :  and  when 
afterwards  the  ground  was  examined,  and  events 
verified  by  signs,  the  skeletons  in  their  places, 
and  the  bullet  holes  in  trees  and  logs,  and  the 
little  pen  with  its  heaps  of  bones,  showed  that 
the  carnage  had  taken  place  exactly  as  described 
by  the  men.  And  this  was  the  slaughter  of 
Major  Dade  and  his  command — of  108  out  of 
112:  as  treadierous,  as  barbarous,  as  perse- 
veringly  cruel  as  ever  was  known.  One  single 
feature  is  some  relief  to  the  sadness  of  the  pic- 
ture, and  discriminates  this  defeat  from  most 
others  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Indians.  There 
were  no  prisoners  put  to  death;  for  no  man 
surrendered.  There  were  no  fugitives  slain  in 
vain  attempts  at  flight ;  for  no  one  fled.  All 
stood,  and  fought,  and  fell  in  their  places,  re- 
turning blow  for  blow  while  life  lasted.  It  was 
the  death  of  soldiers,  showing  that  steadiness  in 
defeat  which  is  above  courage  in  victory. 

And  this  was  the  origin  of  the  Florida  Indian 
war:  and  a  more  treacherous,  ferodous,  and 


72 


TUIKTV  YEAES'  YIEW. 


oold'blooded  origin  was  never  given  to  any  In- 
dian war.  Tet  such  is  the  perversity  of  party 
spirit  that  its  author — ^the  savage  Osceola — ^has 
been  exalted  into  a  hero-patriot;  our  officers, 
disparaged  and  ridiculed;  the  administration 
loaded  with  obloquy.  And  all  this  by  our  pub- 
lic men  in  Congress,  as  well  as  by  writers  in  the 
daily  and  periodical  publications.  The  future 
historian  who  should  take  these  speeches  and 
publications  for  their  guide,  (and  they  are  too 
numerous  and  emphatic  to  be  overlooked,) 
would  write  a  history  discreditable  to  our  arms, 
and  reproachful  to  our  justice.  It  would  be  a 
narrative  of  wickedness  and  imbecility  on  our 
part — of  patriotism  and  heroism  on  the  part  of 
the  Indians:  those  Indians  whose  very  name 
(Seminole — wild,)  define  them  as  the  fugitives 
from  all  tribes,  and  made  still  worse  than  fugi- 
tive Indians  by  a  mixture  with  fugitive  n^oes, 
some  of  whom  became  their  chiefs.  It  was  to 
obviate  the  danger  of  such  a  history  as  that 
would  be,  that  the  author  of  this  View  delivered 
at  the  time,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  concerned, 
an  historical  speech  on  the  Florida  Indian  war, 
fortified  by  fiicts,  and  intended  to  stand  for 
true;  and  which  has  remained  unimpeached. 
Extracts  firom  that  speech  will  constitute  the 
next  chapter,  to  which  this  brief  sketch  will 
serve  as  a  pre£M)e  and  introduction. 


CHAPTEE   XIX. 

FLORIDA  INDIAN  WAR:  HISTORIOAL  SPEECH  OF 
MR.  BENTON. 

A  sxNATOK  from  New  Jersey  [Mr.  Southard] 
has  brought  forward  an  accusation  which  must 
affect  the  character  of  the  late  and  present  ad- 
ministrations at  home,  and  the  character  of  the 
country  abroad ;  and  which,  justice  to  these 
administrations,  and  to  the  country,  requires 
to  be  met  and  answered  upon  the  spot.  That 
senator  has  expressly  charged  that  a  fraud  was 
oommitted  upon  the  Florida  Indians  in  the 
treaty  negotiated  with  them  for  their  removal 
to  the  West ;  that  the  war  which  has  ensued 
was  the  consequence  of  this  fraud ;  and  that 
our  government  was  responsible  to  the  moral 
sense  of  the  community,  and  of  the  world,  for 


all  the  blood  that  has  been  shed,  and  for  all  the 
money  that  has  been  expended,  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  this  war.  This  is  a  heavy  accusation. 
At  home,  it  attaches  to  the  party  in  power,  and 
is  calculated  to  make  them  odious ;  abroad,  it 
attaches  to  the  countiy,  and  is  calculated  to 
blacken  the  national  character.  It  is  an  accu- 
sation, without  the  shadow  of  a  foundation! 
and,  both,  as  one  of  the  party  in  power,  and  as 
an  American  citizen,  I  feel  myself  impelled  by  an 
imperious  sense  of  duty  to  my  friends,  and  to 
my  country,  to  expose  its  incorrectness  at  onoe, 
and  to  vindicate  the  government,  and  the  conn- 
try,  from  an  imputation  as  unfounded  as  it  is 
odioua 

The  senator  firam  New  Jersey  first  located 
this  imputed  fraud  in  the  Payne's  Landing 
treaty,  negotiated  by  General  Gadsden,  in  Flor- 
ida, in  the  year  1832 ;  and,  after  being  tendered 
an  issue  on  the  £Eumess  and  generosity  of  that 
treaty  by  the  senator  fcom  Alabama  [Mr. 
Clat],  he  transferred  the  charge  to  the  Fcnt 
Gibson  treaty,  made  in  Arkansas,  in  the  year 
1833,  by  Messrs.  Stokes,  Ellswortii  and  Scher- 
merhom.  This  was  a  considerable  change  of 
locality,  but  no  change  in  the  accusation  itself; 
the  two  treaties  being  but  one,  and  the  last  be- 
ing-a  literal  performance  of  a  stipulation  con- 
tained in  the  first  These  are  the  &cts ;  and, 
after  stating  the  case,  I  will  prove  it  as  stated. 
This  is  the  statement :  The  Seminole  Indians  in 
Florida  being  an  emigrant  band  of  the  Greeks^ 
and  finding  game  exhausted,  subsistence  difll- 
cult,  and  white  settlements  approaching,  con- 
cluded to  follow  the  mother  tribe,  the  Greeks, 
to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  reunite 
with  them.  This  was  conditionally  agreed  to 
be  done  at  the  Payne's  Landing  treaty ;  and  in 
that  treaty  it  was  stipulated  that  a  deputation 
of  SemiDole  chiefs,  under  the  sanction  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  should  pro- 
ceed to  the  Greek  country  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi— there  to  ascertain  first  whether  a  suitar 
ble  country  could  be  obtained  for  them  there ; 
and,  secondly,  whether  the  Greeks  would  re- 
ceive them  back  as  a  part  of  their  confederacy : 
and  if  the  deputation  should  be  satisfied  on 
these  two  points,  then  the  conditional  obliga- 
tion to  remove,  contained  in  the  Payne's  Land- 
ing treaty,  to  become  binding  and  obligatory 
upon  the  Seminole  tribe.  The  deputation  went ; 
the  two  points  were  solved  in  the  affirmative ; 


ANSrO  18S8.    UAXnS  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


73 


the  obligation  to  remove  became  abeolute  on  the 
part  of  the  Indians ;  and  the  goremment  of 
the  United  States  commenced  preparations  fbr 
effecting  their  easy,  gradual,  and  comfortable 
removaL 

The  entire  emigration  'was  to  be  completed 
in  three  y^ars,  one-third  going  annually,  com- 
mencing in  the  year  1833,  and  to  be  finished  in 
the  years  1834,  and  1835.  The  deputation  sent 
to  the  west  of  the  Mis8is6q>pi,  completed  their 
agreement  with  the  Greeks  on  the  28th  of 
March,  1833 ;  they  returned  home  immediately, 
and  one-third  of  the  tribe  was  to  remove  that 
year.  Every  thing  was  got  ready  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  both  to  transport  the  In- 
dians to  their  new  homes,  and  to  subsist  them 
for  a  year  after  their  arrival  there.  But,  in- 
stead of  removing,  the  Indians  began  to  invent 
excuses,  and  to  interpose  delays,  and  to  pass 
off  the  time  without  conmiencing  the  emigrar 
tion.  The  year  1833,  in  which  one-third  of  the 
tribe  were  to  remove,  passed  off  without  any 
removal ;  the  year  1834,  in  which  another  third 
was  to  go,  was  passed  off  in  the  same  manner ; 
the  year  1835,  in  which  the  emigration  was  to 
have  been  completed,  passed  away,  and  the  emi- 
gration was  not  begun.  On  the  contrary,  on 
the  last  days  of  the  last  month  of  that  year, 
while  the  United  States  was  still  peaceably  urg- 
ing the  removal,  an  accumulation  of  treacherous 
and  horrible  assassinations  and  massacres  were 
committed.  The  United  States  agent,  General 
Thompson,  Lieutenant  Smith,  of  the  artillery, 
and  five  others,  were  assassinated  in  sight  of 
Fort  King;  two  expresses  were  murdered;  and 
Major  Dade's  command  was  massacred. 

In  their  excuses  and  pretexts  for  not  remov- 
ing, the  Indians  never  thought  of  the  reasons 
which  have  been  supplied  to  them  on  this  floor. 
They  never  thought  of  alleging  fraud.  Their 
pretexts  were  frivolous ;  as  that  it  was  a  long 
distance,  and  that  bad  Indians  lived  in  that 
country,  and  that  the  old  treaty  of  Fort  Moul- 
trie allowed  them  twenty  years  to  live  in  Flor- 
ida. Their  real  motive  was  the  desire  of  blood 
and  pillage  on  the  part  of  many  Indians,  and 
still  more  on  the  part  of  the  five  hundred  run- 
away negroes  mixed  up  among  them ;  and  who 
believed  that  they  could  carry  on  their  system 
of  robbery  and  murder  with  impunity,  and  that 
the  swamps  of  the  country  would  for  ever  pro-  I 
tect  them  against  the  pursuit  of  the  whites.       I 


This,  Mr.  President,  is  the  pliun  and  brief 
narrative  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the  Semi- 
nole war ;  it  is  the  brief  historical  view  of  the 
case ;  and  if  I  was  speaking  imder  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  reply  to  incidental  remarks, 
I  should  content  myself  with  this  narrative, 
and  let  the  question  go  to  the  country  upon  the 
strength  and  credit  of  this  statement  But  I 
do  not  speak  under  ordinary  droumstances ;  I 
am  not  replying  to  incidental  and  casual  re- 
marks. I  speak  in  answer  to  a  formal  accusa- 
tion, preferred  on  this  floor ;  I  speak  to  defend 
the  late  and  present  administrations  from  an 
odious  charge ;  and,  in  defending  them,  to  vin- 
dicate the  character  of  our  country  from  the 
accusation  of  the  senator  from  New  Jersey 
[Mr.  Southard],  and  to  show  that  fraud  has 
not  been  committed  upon  these  Indians,  and 
that  the  guilt  of  a  war,  founded  in  fraud,  is  not 
justly  imputable  to  them. 

The  Seminoles  had  stipulated  that  the  agent^ 
Major  Phagan,  and  their  own  interpreter,  the 
negro  Abraham,  should  accompany  them ;  and 
this  was  done.  It  so  happened,  also,  that  an  ex- 
traordinary commission  of  three  members  sent 
out  by  the  United  States  to  adjust  Indian  diffi- 
culties generally,  was  then  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi; and  these  commissioners  were  directed 
to  join  in  the  negotiations  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  give  the  sanction  of  our 
guarantee  to  the  agreements  made  between  the 
Seminoles  and  the  Greeks  for  the  reunion  of  the 
former  to  the  parent  tribe.  This  was  done. 
Our  commissioners,  Messrs.  Stokes,  Ellsworth, 
and  Schermerhom,  became  party  to  a  treaty 
with  the  Greek  Indians  for  the  reunion  of  the 
Seminoles,  made  at  Fort  Gibson,  the  14th  of 
February,  1833.  The  treaty  contained  this 
article: 

^  Article  IY.  It  is  understood  and  agreed 
that  the  Seminole  Indians  of  Florida,  whose  re- 
moval to  this  country  is  provided  for  by  their 
treaty  with  the  United  States,  dated  May  9, 
1832,  shall  also  have  a  permanent  and  comfort- 
able home  on  the  lands  hereby  set  apart  as  the 
country  of  the  Greek  nation;  and  they,  the 
Seminoles,  will  hereafter  be  considered  as  a  con- 
stituent part  of  the  said  nation,  but  are  to  be 
located  on  some  part  of  the  Greek  country  by 
themselves,  which  location  shall  be  selected  for 
them  by  the  commissioners  who  have  seen  these 
articles  of  agreement." 

This  agreement  with  the  Greeks  settled  one 
of  the  conditions  on  which  the  removal  of  the 


74 


THIRTY  YKARS*  VIEW. 


Seminoles  was  to  depend.    We  will  now  see 
how  the  other  condition  was  disposed  of. 

In  a  treaty  made  at  the  same  Fort  Gibson,  on 
the  28th  of  March,  1833,  between  the  same 
three  commissioners  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  seven  delegated  Seminole  chiefs, 
after  reciting  the  two  conditions  precedent  con- 
tained in  the  Payne's  Landing  treaty,  and  re- 
citing, also,  the  convention  with  the  Greeks  on 
the  14th  of  February  preceding,  it  is  thus  stipu- 
lated: 

"  Now,  therefore,  the  commissioners  aforesaid, 
by  virtue  of  the  power  and  authority  vested  in 
them  by  the  treaty  made  with  the  Creek  Indians 
on  the  14th  of  February,  1833,  as  above  stated, 
hereby  designate  and  assign  to  the  Seminole 
tribe  of  Indians,  for  their  separate  future  resi- 
dence for  ever,  a  tract  of  country  lying  between 
the  Canadian  River  and  the  south  fork  thereof, 
and  extending  west  to  where  a  line  running 
north  and  south  between  the  main  Canadian 
and  north  branch  will  strike  the  forks  of  Little 
River;  provided  said  west  line  does  not  extend 
more  than  twenty-five  miles  west  from  the 
mouth  of  said  Little  River.  And  the  under^ 
signed  Seminole  chiefs,  delegated  as  aforesaid, 
on  behalf  of  the  nation,  hereby  declare  them- 
selves well  satisfied  with  the  location  provided 
for  them  by  the  commissioners,  and  agree  that 
their  nation  shall  commence  the  removal  to  their 
new  home  as  soon  as  the  government  will  make 
the  arrangements  for  their  emigration  satisfac- 
tory to  the  Seminole  nation." 

This  treaty  is  signed  by  the  delegation,  and 
by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States,  and 
witnessed,  among  others,  by  the  same  Miy'or 
Phagan,  agent,  and  Abraham,  interpreter,  whose 
presence  was  stipulated  for  at  Payne's  Landing. 

Thus  the  two  conditions  on  which  the  re- 
moval depended,  were  complied  with;  they 
were  both  established  in  the  affirmative.  The 
Creeks,  under  the  solemn  sanction  and  guarantee 
of  the  United  States,  agree  to  receive  back  the 
Seminoles  as  a  part  of  their  confederacy,  and 
agree  that  they  shall  live  adjoining  them  on 
Uuids  designated  for  their  residence.  The  dele- 
gation declare  themselves  well  satisfied  with  the 
country  assigned  them,  and  agree  that  the  re- 
moval should  commence  as  soon  as  the  United 
States  could  make  the  necessary  arrangements 
for  the  removal  of  the  people. 

This  brings  down  the  proof  to  the  conclusion 
of  all  questions  beyond  the  Mississippi;  it 
brings  it  down  to  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty 
at  Fort  Gibson— that  treaty  in  which  the  sena- 


tor from  New  Jersey  [Mr.  Southard]  baa 
located  the  charge  of  fraud,  after  withdrawing 
the  same  charge  from  the  Payne's  Tending 
treaty.  It  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  nqgotia- 
tions  at  the  point  selected  for  the  chaiige;  and 
now  how  stands  the  accusation  ?  How  stands 
the  charge  of  fraud?  Is  there  a  shadow,  an 
atom,  a  speck,  of  foundation  on  which  to  rest 
it?  No,  sir:  Nothing — nothing — nothing! 
Every  thing  was  done  that  was  stipulated  for ; 
done  by  the  persons  who  were  to  do  it ;  and 
done  in  the  exact  manner  agreed  upon.  In  &ct, 
the  nature  of  the  things  to  be  done  west  of  the 
Mississippi  was  such  as  not  to  admit  of  fraud. 
Two  things  were  to  be  done,  one  to  be  seen 
with  the  eyes,  and  the  other  to  be  heard  with 
the  ears.  The  deputation  was  to  see  their  new 
country,  and  say  whether  they  liked  it.  This 
was  a  question  to  their  own  senses — to  their 
own  eyes — and  was  not  susceptible  of  fraud. 
They  were  to  hear  whether  the  Creeks  would 
receive  them  back  as  a  part  of  their  confederacy ; 
this  was  a  question  to  their  own  ears^  and  was 
also  unsusceptible  of  fraud.  Their  own  eyea 
could  not  deceive  them  in  looking  at  land ;  their 
own  ears  could  not  deceive  them  in  listening  to 
their  own  languages  from  the  Creeks.  No,  sir: 
there  was  no  physical  capacity,  or  moral  meana^ 
for  the  perpetration  of  fraud ;  and  none  has  ever 
been  pretended  by  the  Indians  from  that  day 
to  this.  The  Indians  themselves  have  never 
thought  of  such  a  thing.  There  is  no  assump- 
tion of  a  deceived  party  among  them.  It  is  not 
a  deceived  party  that  is  at  war — a  party  de- 
ceived by  the  delegation  which  went  to  the  West 
— ^but  that  very  delegation  itself,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Charley  £marthla,  are  the  hostile 
leaders  at  home !  This  is  reducing  the  accusa- 
tion to  an  absurdity.  It  is  making  the  delega- 
tion the  dupes  of  their  own  eyes  and  of  their 
own  ears,  and  then  going  to  war  with  the 
United  States,  because  their  own  eyes  deceived 
them  in  looking  at  land  on  the  Canadian  River, 
and  their  own  ears  deceived  them  in  listening  to 
their  own  language  from  the  Creeks ;  and  then 
charging  these  frauds  upon  the  United  States, 
All  this  is  absurd ;  and  it  is  due  to  these  absent 
savages  to  say  that  they  never  committed  any 
such  absurdity — that  they  never  placed  their 
objection  to  remove  upon  any  plea  of  deception 
practised  upon  them  beyond  the  Mississippi, 
but  on  frivolous  pretexts  invented  long  after 


ABNO  1888.    M AKTIN  YAIT  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


75 


the  retojB  of  the  delegation;  which  pretexts 
covered  the  real  grounds  growing  out  of  the 
Influence  of  runaway  shiyes,  and  some  eyilly 
disposed  chiefe,  and  that  thirst  for  blood  and 
plunder,  in  wluch  thej  expected  a  long  course 
of  eiyoyment  and  impunity  in  their  swamps, 
beliered  to  be  impenetrable  to  the  whites. 

Thus,  sir,  it  is  clearly  and  fully  proved  that 
there  was  no  fraud  practised  upon  these  Indi> 
ans ;  that  they  themselves  never  pretended  such 
a  thing;  and  that  the  accusation  is  wholly  a 
ctxrgfi  of  recent  origm  sprung  up  among  our- 
selves. Having  shown  that  there  was  no  fraud, 
this  might  be  sufficient  for  the  occasion,  but 
having  been  forced  into  the  inquiry,  it  may  be 
as  well  to  complete  it  by  showing  what  were 
the  causes  of  this  war.  To  understand  these 
causes,  it  is  necessary  to  recur  to  dates,  to  see 
the  extreme  moderation  with  which  the  United 
States  acted,  the  long  time  which  they  tolerated 
the  delays  of  the  Indians,  and  the  traeichery  and 
murder  with  which  their  indulgence  and  for- 
bearance was  requited.  The  emigration  was  to 
commence  in  1833,  and  be  completed  in  the 
years  1834  and  1835.  The  hust  days  of  the  last 
month  of  this  last  year  had  arrived,  and  the  emi- 
gration had  not  yet  commenced.  Wholly  in- 
tent on  their  peaceable  removal,  the  administra- 
tion had  despatched  a  disbursing  agent,  Lieu- 
tenant Harris  of  the  army,  to  take  charge  of  the 
expenditures  for  the  subsistence  of  these  people. 
He  arrived  at  Fort  King  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
28th  of  December,  1835 ;  and  as  he  entei«d  the 
fort,  he  became  almost  an  eye- wUness  of  a  horrid 
scene  which  was  the  subject  of  his  first  despatch 
to  his  government  He  describes  it  in  these  words; 

^  I  regret  that  it  becomes  my  first  duty  after 
my  arrival  here  to  be  the  narrator  of  a  story, 
which  it  will  be,  I  am  sure,  as  painful  for  you 
to  hear,  as  it  is  for  me,  who  was  almost  an  eye 
witness  to  the  bloody  deed,  to  reUte  toyou. 
Our  excellent  superintendent,  General  Wiley 
Thompson,  has  been  most  cruelly  murdered  by 
a  party  of  the  hostile  Indians,  and  with  him 
Lieutenant  Constant  Smith,  of  the  2d  regiment 
of  artillery,  firastus  Rogers,  the  suttler  to  the 
post,  with  his  two  clerks,  a  Mr.  Kitader,  and  a 
boy  called  Robert.  This  occurred  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  28th  instant  (December),  between 
three  and  four  o'clock.  On  the  day  or  the  mas- 
sacre, Lieutenant  Smith  had  dined  with  the 
General,  and  after  dinner  invited  him  to  take  a 
short  stroll  with  him.  They  had  not  proceeded 
more  than  three  hundred  yards  beyond  the 


agency  office,  when  they  were  fired  upon  by  a 
party  of  Indians,  who  rose  from  ambush  in  the 
hammock,  within  sight  of  the  fort,  and  on  which 
the  suttler's  house  borders.  The  reports  of  the 
rifles  firedj  the  war-whoop  twice  repeated,  and 
after  a  brief  space,  several  other  volleys  more 
remote,  and  in  the  quarter  of  Mr.  Rogers's  house, 
were  heard,  and  the  smoke  of  the  firing  seen 
from  the  fort  Mr.  Rogers  and  his  clerks  were 
surprised  at  dinner.  Three  escaped:  the  rest 
murdered.  The  bodies  of  General  Thompson, 
Lieutenant  Smith,  and  Mr.  Kitzler,  were  soon 
found  and  brought  in.  Those  of  the  others 
were  not  found  until  this  morning.  That  of 
General  Thompson  was  perforated  with  fourteen 
bullets.  Mr.  Rogers  had  received  seventeen. 
All  were  scalped,  except  the  boy.  The  coward- 
ly murderers  are  supposed  to  lie  a  party  of  Mi- 
casookees.  40  or  50  strong,  imder  the  traitor 
Powell  (Osceola),  whose  shrill,  peculiar  war- 
whoop,  was  reco^iized  by  our  interpreters,  and 
the  one  or  two  friendly  Indians  we  have  in  the 
fort,  and  who  knew  it  welL  Two  expresses 
(soldiers)  were  despatched  upon  fresh  horses  on 
the  evening  of  this  horrid  tragedy,  with  tidings 
of  it  to  General  Clinch ;  but  not  hearing  from 
him  or  them,  we  conclude  they  were  cut  ofl« 
We  are  also  exceedingly  anxious  for  the  fate  of 
the  two  companies  (under  Major  Dade)  which 
had  been  ordered  up  from  Fort  Brooke,  and  of 
whom  we  learn  nothing." 

Sir,  this  is  the  first  letter  of  the  disbursing 
agent,  specially  detached  to  furnish  the  supplies 
to  the  emigrating  Indians.  He  arrives  in  the 
midst  of  treachery  and  murder ;  and  his  first 
letter  is  to  announce  to  the  government  the  as- 
sassination of  their  agent,  an  officer  of  artillery, 
and  ^YQ  citizens ;  the  assassination  of  two  ex- 
presses, for  they  were  both  waylaid  and  mur- 
dered; and  the  massacre  of  one  hundred  and 
twelve  men  and  officers  under  Miyor  Dade.  All 
this  took  pUioe  at  once ;  and  this  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war.  Up  to*  that  moment  the 
government  of  the  United  States  were  wholly 
employed  in  preparing  the  Indians  for  removal, 
recommending  them  to  go,  and  using  no  force  or 
violence  upon  them.  This  is  the  way  the  war 
was  brought  on ;  this  is  the  way  it  began ;  and 
was  there  ever  a  case  in  which  a  government 
was  so  loudly  called  upon  to  avenge  the  dead, 
to  protect  the  living,  and  to  cause  itself  to  be 
respected  by  punishing  the  contemners  of  its 
power  ?  The  murder  of  the  agent  was  a  double 
ofience,  a  peculiar  outrage  to  the  government 
whose  representative  he  was,  and  a  violation 
even  of  the  national  law  of  savages.  Agents  are 
seldom  murdered  even  by  savages ;  and  bound 


76 


THIRTY  TSARS'  VIEW. 


as  eyerj  goremment  is  to  protect  all  its  citusena, 
it  is  doubly  bound  to  protect  its  agents  and  re- 
presentatives abroad.  Here,  then,  is  a  goyem- 
ment  agent,  and  a  military  officer,  five  citizens, 
two  expresses,  and  a  detachment  of  one  hundred 
and  twelve  men,  in  all  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
one  persons,  treacherously  and  inhumanly  mas- 
sacred in  one  day !  and  because  General  Jack- 
son's administration  did  not  submit  to  this  hor- 
rid outrage,  he  is  charged  with  the  guilt  of  a 
war  founded  in  fraud  upon  innocent  and  unof- 
fending Indians !  Such  is  the  spirit  of  opposi- 
tion to  our  own  government !  such  the  love  of 
Indians  and  contempt  of  whites !  and  such  the 
mawkish  sentimentality  of  the  day  in  which  we 
live — ^a  sentimentality  which  goes  moping  and 
sorrowing  about  in  behalf  of  imaginary  wrongs 
to  Indians  and  negroes,  while  the  whites  them- 
selves are  the  subject  of  murder,  robbeiy  and 
defiunation. 

The  prime  mover  in  all  this  mischief  and  the 
leading  agent  in  the  most  atrocious  scene  of  it, 
was  a  half-blooded  Indian  of  little  note  before 
this  time,  and  of  no  consequence  in  the  councils 
of  his  tribe ;  for  his  name  is  not  to  be  seen  in  the 
treaty  either  of  Payne's  Landing  or  Fort  Gibson. 
We  call  him  Powell ;  by  his  tribe  he  was  called 
Osceola.  He  led  the  attack  in  the  massacre  of 
the  agent,  and  of  those  who  were  killed  with 
him,  in  the  afternoon  of  the  28th  of  December. 
The  disbursing  agent,  whose  letter  has  been 
read,  in  his  account  of  that  massacre,  applies  the 
epithet  traitor  to  the  name  of  this  Powell.  Well 
might  he  apply  that  epithet  to  that  assassin ; 
ibr  he  had  just  been  fed  and  caressed  by  the 
very  person  whom  he  waylaid  and  murdered. 
He  had  come  into  the  agency  shortly  before  that 
time  with  seventy  of  his  followers,  professed  his 
satisfaction  with  the  treaty,  his  readiness  to  re- 
move, and  received  subsistence  and  supplies  for 
himself  and  all  his  party.  The  most  friendly 
relations  seemed  to  be  established;  and  the 
doomed  and  deceived  agent)  in  giving  his  ac- 
count of  it  to  the  government,  says :  ^'  The  re- 
sult was  that  we  dosed  with  the  utmost  good 
feeling ;  and  I  have  never  seen  Powell  and  the 
other  chiefs  so  cheerful  and  in  so  fine  a  humor, 
at  the  close  of  a  discussion  upon  the  subject  of 
removal." 

This  is  Powell  (OsceoU),  for  whom  all  our 
sympathies  are  so  pathetically  invoked !  a 
treacherous  assassin,  not  only  of  our  people,  but 


of  his  own— ft>r  he  it  was  who  waylaid,  and  shot 
in  the  back,  in  the  most  cowardly  manner,  the 
brave  chief  Charley  Emarthla^  whom  he  dared 
not  fiKse,  and  whom  he  thus  assassinated  because 
he  refused  to  join  him  and  his  runaway  negroes 
in  murdering  the  white  people.  The  collector 
of  Indian  curiosities  and  portraits,  Mr.  Catlin, 
may  be  permitted  to  manufacture  a  hero  out  of 
this  assassin,  and  to  make  a  poetical  scene  of 
his  imprisonment  on  Sullivan's  island;  bat  it 
will  not  do  for  an  American  senator  to  take  the 
same  liberties  with  historical  truth  and  our  na- 
tional character.  Powell  ought  to  have  been 
hung  for  the  assassination  of  General  Thomp- 
son ;  and  the  only  fault  of  our  officers  is,  that 
they  did  not  hang  him  the  moment  they  caught 
him.  The  fate  of  Ari>uthnot  and  Ambrister  was 
due  to  him  a  thousand  times  over. 

I  have  now  answered  the  accusation  of  the 
senator  from  New  Jersey  [Mr.  SouTHAan].  I 
have  shown  the  origin  of  this  war.  I  have  shown 
that  it  originated  in  no  fraud,  no  injustice,  no 
violence,  on  the  part  of  this  government,  but  in 
the  thirst  for  blood  and  rapine  on  the  part  of 
these  Indians,  and  in  their  confident  belief  that 
their  swamps  would  be  their  protection  against 
the  pursuit  of  the  whites ;  and  that,  emerging 
from  these  festnesses  to  commit  robbery  and 
murder,  and  retiring  to  them  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  their  marauding  expeditions,  they  had  before 
them  a  long  perspective  of  impunity  in  the  en- 
joyment of  their  favorite  occupation.  This  I 
have  shown  to  be  the  cause  of  the  war ;  and 
having  vindicated  the  administration  and  the 
country  from  the  injustice  of  the  imputation 
cast  upon  them,  I  proceed  to  answer  some 
things  said  by  a  senator  from  South  Carolina 
[Mr.  Pkestom],  which  tended  to  disparage  the 
troops  generally  which  have  been  employed  in 
Florida ;  to  disparage  a  particular  general  offi- 
cer, and  also  to  accuse  that  general  officer  of  a 
particular  and  specified  ofienoe.  That  senator 
has  decried  our  troops  in  Florida  for  the  gene- 
ral inefficiency  of  their  operations ;  he  has  de- 
cried General  Jesup  for  the  general  imbedlity 
of  his  operations,  and  he  has  charged  this  Gen- 
eral with  the  vioUtion  of  a  flag,  and  the  com- 
mission of  a  perfidious  act,  in  detaining  and  im- 
prisoning the  Indian  Powell,  who  came  into  his 
camp. 

I  think  there  is  great  error  and  great  ii^us- 
tioe  in  all  these  imputations,  and  that  it  is  right 


ANNO  IStB.    MABTDr  VAK  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


77 


ibr  some  senator  on  this  floor  to  answer  them. 
My  position,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affiurs,  would  seem  to  assign  that 
dot  J  to  me^  and  it  may  he  the  reason  why 
others  who  have  spoken  have  omitted  aU  reply 
on  these  points.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  feel  im- 
pelled to  say  something  in  hehalf  of  those  who 
are  absent,  and  cannot  speak  for  themselves — 
those  who  mnst  always  feel  the  wound  of  un- 
merited censure,  and  must  feel  it  more  keenly 
when  the  bk>w  that  inflicts  the  wound  falls 
from  the  derated  floor  of  the  American  Senate. 
So  fiir  as  the  army,  generally,  is  concerned  in 
this  censure,  I  might  leave  them  where  they 
have  been  placed  by  the  senator  from  SouUi 
Carolina  [Mr.  Prestom],  and  others  on  that  side 
of  the  House,  if  I  could  limit  my  self  to  acting  a 
political  part  here.  The  army,  as  a  body,  is  no 
Mend  of  the  political  party  to  which  I  belong. 
Individuals  among  them  are  friendly  to  the  ad- 
ministration; but,  as  a  body,  they  go  for  the 
opposition,  and  would  terminate  our  political 
eziistence,  if  they  could,  and  put  our  opponents 
in  our  place,  at  the  first  general  election  that 
intervenes.  As  a  politician,  then,  I  might  aban- 
don them  to  the  care  of  their  political  friends ; 
but,  as  an  American,  as  a  senator,  and  as  hav- 
ing had  some  connection  with  the  militaiy  pro- 
fession, I  feel  myself  called  upon  to  dissent  from 
the  opinion  which  has  been  expressed,  and  to 
give  my  reasons  for  believing  that  the  army  has 
not  suffered,  and  ou|^t  not  to  suffer,  in  charac- 
ter, by  the  events  in  Florida.  True,  our  oflir 
oers  and  soldiers  have  not  performed  the  same 
feats  there  which  they  performed  in  Canada,  ^md 
elsewhere.  But  why  ?  Certainly  because  tiiey 
have  not  got  the  same,  or  an  equivalent,  theatre 
to  act  upon,  nor  an  enemy  to  cope  with  over 
whom  brilliant  victories  can  be  obtained.  The 
peninsula  of  Florida,  where  this  war  rages,  is 
sprinkled  all  over  with  swamps,  hammocks, 
and  lagoons,  believed  for  three  hundred  years 
to  be  impernous  to  the  white  man's  tread. 
The  theatre  of  war  is  of  great  extent,  stretching 
over  six  panJlels  of  latitude ;  all  of  it  in  the 
sultry  region  below  thirty-one  degrees  of  north 
latitude.  The  extremity  of  this  peninsula  ap- 
proaches the  tropic  of  Capricorn;  and  at  this 
moment,  while  we  speak  here^  the  soldier  under 
arms  at  mid-day  there  will  cast  no  shadow :  a 
vertical  sun  darts  its  fiery  rays  direot  upon  the 
crown  of  his  head.  Suffixjating  heat  oppresses 
the  frame;  annoying  insects  sting  the  boc^; 


burning  sands,  a  spongy  morass,  and  the  sharp 
cutting  saw  grass,  receive  the  feet  and  legs ; 
disease  follows  the  summer's  exertion ;  and  a 
dense  foliage  covers  the  foe.  Eight  months  in 
the  year  military  exertions  are  impossible; 
during  four  months  only  can  any  thing  be 
done.  The  Indians  well  understand  this;  and, 
during  these  four  months,  either  give  or  receive 
an  attack,  as  they  please,  or  endeavor  to  con- 
sume the  season  in  wily  parieys.  The  possi- 
bility of  splendid  military  exfdoits  does  not 
exist  in  such  a  country,  and  against  such  a  foe : 
but  there  is  room  there,  and  ample  room  there, 
for  the  exhibition  of  the  highest  qualities  of  the 
soldier.  There  is  room  there  for  patience,  and 
for  fortitude,  under  every  variety  of  sufiering^ 
and  under  every  form  of  privation.  There  is 
room  there  for  courage  and  discipline  to  exhibit 
itself  against  perils  and  trials  which  subject 
courage  and  discipline  to  the  severest  test& 
And  has  there  been  any  fiulure  of  patience,  for- 
titude, courage^  discipline,  and  subordination  in 
all  this  war  t  Where  is  the  instance  in  whidi 
the  men  have  revolted  against  their  officers,  or 
in  which  the  officer  has  deserted  his  men? 
Where  is  the  instance  of  a  flight  in  battle? 
Where  the  instance  of  orders  disobeyed,  ranks 
broken,  or  confusion  of  corps?  On  the  con- 
trary, we  have  constantly  seen  the  steadiness, 
and  the  discipline,  of  the  parade  maintained 
under  every  danger,  and  in  the  presence  of 
massacre  itself  Officers  and  men  have  fought 
it  out  where  they  were  told  to  fight;  they 
have  been  killed  in  the  tracks  m  which  they 
were  told  to  stand.  None  of  those  pitiable 
scenes  of  which  all  our  Indian  wars  have  shown 
some— those  harrowing  scenes  in  which  the 
helpless  prisoner,  or  the  hapless  fugitive,  is 
massacred  without  pity,  and  without  resist- 
ance: none  of  these  have  been  seen.  Many 
have  perished;  but  it  was  the  death  of  the 
combatant  in  arms,  and  not  of  the  captive  or 
the  fugitive.  In  no  one  of  our  savage  wars 
have  our  troops  so  stood  together,  and  con- 
quered together,  and  died  together,  as  they 
have  done  in  this  one;  and  this  standing  to- 
gether is  the  test  of  the  soldier's  character. 
Steadiness,  subordination,  courage,  discipline, — 
these  are  the  test  of  the  soldier ;  and  in  no  iit- 
stance  have  our  troops,  or  any  troops,  ever 
evinced  the  possession  of  these  qualities  in  a 
higher  degree  than  during  the  campaigns  in 
Florida.    WhUe,  then,  brilliant  victories  may 


78 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VlkW. 


not  haye  been  seen,  and,  in  fact,  were  impossi- 
ble, yet  the  highest  qualities  of  good  soldier- 
ship have  been  eminently  displayed  throughout 
this  war.  Courage  and  discipline  hare  shown 
themselves,  throughout  all  its  stages,  in  tbeir 
noblest  forms. 

From  the  general  imputation  of  inefficiency 
in  our  operations  in  Florida,  the  senator  from 
South  Carolina  [Mr.  Preston]  comes  to  a  par- 
ticular commander,  and  charges  inefficiency 
specifically  upon  him.  This  commander  is 
General  Jesup.  The  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina has  been  layish,  and  even  profuse,  in  his 
denunciation  of  that  general,  and  has  gone  so 
far  as  to  talk  about  military  courts  of  inquiry. 
Leaving  the  general  open  to  all  such  inquiry, 
and  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  senator 
from  South  Carolina  has  no  idea  of  moving 
such  inquiry,  and  intends  to  rest  the  effect  of 
his  denunciation  upon  its  delivery  here,  I  shall 
proceed  to  answer  him  here — giving  speech  for 
speech  on  this  floor,  and  leaving  the  general 
himself  to  reply  when  it  comes  to  that  threat- 
ened inquiry,  which  I  undertake  to  affirm  will 
never  be  moved. 

General  Jesup  is  charged  with  imbecility 
and  inefficiency ;  the  continuance  of  the  war  is 
imputed  to  his  incapacity ;  and  he  is  held  up 
here,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  to  public  repre- 
hension for  these  imputed  delinquencies.  This 
is  the  accusation ;  and  now  let  us  see  with  how 
much  truth  and  justice  it  is  made.  Happily 
for  General  Jesup,  this  happens  to  be  a  case  in 
which  we  have  data  to  go  upon,  and  in  which 
there  are  authentic  materials  for  comparing  the 
operations  of  himself  with  those  of  other  gen- 
erals— ^his  predecessors  in  the  same  field — ^with 
whose  success  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
is  entirely  satisfied.  Dates  and  figures  furnish 
this  data  and  these  materials;  and,  after  re- 
fireshing  the  memory  of  the  Senate  with  a  few 
dates,  I  will  proceed  to  the  answers  which  the 
facts  of  the  case  supply.  The  first  date  is,  as 
to  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  this  war; 
the  second,  as  to  the  time  that  General  Jesup 
assumed  the  command;  the  third,  as  to  the 
time  when  he  was  relieved  from  the  command. 
On  the  first  point,  it  will  be  recollected  that 
the  war  broke  out  upon  the  assassination  o{ 
General  Thompson,  the  agent,  Lieutenant 
Smith,  who  was  with  him ;  the  sutler  and  his 
clerks ;  the  murder  of  the  two  expresses ;  and 
the  massacre  of  Major  Dade's  oommaad;— 


events  which  came  together  in  point  of  time, 
and  compelled  an  immediate  resort  to  war  by 
the  United  States.  These  assassinations,  these 
murders,  and  this  massacre,  took  place  on  the 
28th  day  of  December,  1835.  The  commence- 
ment of  the  war,  then,  dates  fixim  that  day. 
The  next  point  is,  the  time  of  General  Jesup's 
appointment  to  the  command.  This  occurred 
in  December,  1836.  The  third  point  is,  the 
date  of  General  Jesup's  relief  from  the  oom- 
mand,  and  this  took  place  in  May,  of  the  pres- 
ent year,  1838.  The  war  has  then  c<mtinued — 
counting  to  the  present  time — ^two  years  and  a 
half;  and  of  that  period.  General  Jeeup  has  had 
command  something  less  than  one  year  and  a 
half.  Other  generals  had  command  for  a  year 
before  he  was  appointed  in  that  quarter.  Now, 
how  much  had  those  other  generals  done!  All 
put  together,  how  much  had  they  done  ?  And 
I  ask  this  question  not  to  disparage  their  meri- 
torious exertions,  but  to  obtain  data  for  the 
vindication  of  the  officer  now  assailed.  The 
senator  from  South  Carolina  [Mr.  Preston]  is 
satisfied  with  the  operations  of  the  previous 
commanders ;  now  let  him  see  how  the  opera- 
tions of  the  officer  whom  he  assails  will  com- 
pare with  the  operations  of  those  who  are  hon- 
ored with  his  approbation.  The  comparison  is 
brief  and  mathematical  It  is  a  problem  in  the 
exact  sciences.  (General  Jesup  reduced  the 
hostiles  in  the  one  year  and  a  half  of  his  com- 
mand, 2,200  souls:  aU  his  predecessors  together 
had  reduced  them  150  in  one  year.  Where 
does  censure  rest  now  1 

Sir,  I  disparage  nobody.  I  make  no  exhibit 
of  comparative  results  to  undervalue  the  operar- 
tions  of  the  previous  commanders  in  Florida.  I 
know  the  difficulty  of  military  operations  there, 
and  the  ease  of  criticism  here.  I  never  assailed 
those  previous  commanders;  on  the  contrary, 
often  pointed  out  the  nature  of  the  theatre  on 
which  they  operated  as  a  cause  for  the  miscar- 
riage of  expeditions,  and  for  the  want  of  brilliant 
and  decisive  results.  Now  for  the  first  time  I 
refer  to  the  point,  and,  not  to  disparage  others, 
but  to  vindicate  the  officer  assailed.  His  vindi- 
cation is  found  in  the  comparison  of  results  be- 
tween himself  and  his  predecessors,  and  in  the 
approbation  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
of  the  results  under  the  predecessors  of  General 
Jesup.  Satisfied  with  them,  he  must  be  satis- 
fied with  him  ;  fbr  the  differenoe  is  as  fifteen  to 
one  in  favor  of  the  decried  general 


ANNO  1888.    IIABTIK  TAN  BUESN,  PRESIDENT. 


79 


Beddea  the  genfiral  denunciation  for  ineffi- 
ciency, which  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
has  layished  upon  General  Jesup,  and  which  de- 
nunciation has  so  completely  received  its  answer 
in  this  comparative  statement;  hesides  this 
general  denunciation,  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina  hrought  forward  a  specific  accusation 
against  the  honor  of  the  same  officer — an  accusa- 
tion of  perfidy,  and  of  a  violation  of  flag  of 
tmce,  in  the  seizure  and  detention  of  the  Indian 
Osceola,  who  had  come  into  his  camp.  On  the 
part  of  General  Jesup,  I  repel  this  accusation, 
and  declare  his  whole  oonduct  in  relation  to  this 
Indian,  to  have  been  justifiable^  under  the  laws 
of  civilized  or  savage  warfare ;  that  it  was  ex- 
pedient in  point  of  policy ;  and  that  if  any 
blame  could  attach  to  the  general,  it  would  be 
for  the  contrary  of  that  with  which  he  is 
blamed;  it  would  be  for  an  excess  of  forbear^ 
anoe  and  indulgence. 

The  justification  of  the  general  for  the  seizure 
and  detention  of  this  half-breed  Indian,  is  the  first 
point ;  and  that  rests  upon  several  and  distinct 
grounds,  either  of  which  fully  justifies  the  act 

1.  This  Osceola  had  broken  his  parole ;  and, 
therefore,  was  liable  to  be  seized  and  detained. 

The  &cts  were  these:  In  the  month  of  May, 
1837,  this  chie^  with  his  followers,  went  into 
Fort  Mellon,  under  the  cover  of  a  white  flag,  and 
there  surrendered  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Har- 
ney. He  declared  himoelf  done  with  the  war, 
and  ready  to  emigrate  to  the  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  solicited  subsistence  and  transporta- 
tion for  himself  and  his  people  for  that  purpose. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney  received  him,  sup- 
plied him  with  provisions,  and,  relying  upon  his 
word  and  apparent  sincerity,  instead  of  sending 
him  under  guard,  took  his  parole  to  go  td  Tampa 
Bay,  the  place  at  which  he  preferred  to  embark, 
to  take  shipping  there  for  the  West  Supplied 
with  every  thing,  Osceola  and  his  people  left 
Fort  Mellon,  under  the  pledge  to  go  to  Tampa 
Bay.  He  never  went  there !  but  returned  to  the 
hostiles;  and  it  was  afterwards  ascertained  that 
be  never  had  any  idea  of  going  West)  but  merely 
wished  to  live  well  for  a  while  at  the  expense 
of  the  whites,  examine  their  strength  and  posi- 
tion, and  return  to  his  work  of  blood  and  pillage. 
After  this,  he  had  the  audacity  to  approach 
General  Jesup's  camp  in  October  of  the  same 
year,  with  another  piece  of  white  doth  over  his 
head,  thinking,  after  his  suooessfultreadierieBto 
the  agent,  General  Thompson,  and  lient  Oolone 


Harney,  that  there  was  no  end  to  his  tricks 
upon  white  people.  General  Jesup  ordered  him 
to  be  seized  and  carried  a  prisoner  to  Sullivan's 
Island,  where  he  was  treated  with  the  greatest 
humanity,  and  allowed  every  possible  indulgence 
and  gratification.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  in 
justification  of  General  Jesup's  conduct  to  that 
Indian,  and  it  is  sufficient  of  itself;  but  there 
are  others,  and  they  shall  be  stated. 

2.  Osceola  had  violated  an  order  in  coming 
in^  with  a  view  to  return  to  the  hostiles  j  and^ 
therefore^  was  liable  to  be  detained. 

The  facts  were  these:  Many  Indians,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  had  come  in  under  the  pretext  of 
a  determination  to  emigrate ;  and  after  receiv- 
ing supplies,  and  vievring  the  strength  and  po- 
sition of  the  troops,  returned  again  to  the  hos- 
tiles, and  carried  on  the  war  with  renewed  vigor. 
This  had  been  done  repeatedly.  It  was  making 
a  mockery  of  the  white  flag,  and  subjecting  our 
officers  to  ridicule  as  w^ll  as  to  danger.  Gen- 
eral Jesup  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  these 
treacherous  and  dangerous  visits,  by  which  spies 
and  enemies  obtained  access  to  the  bosom  of  his 
camp.  He  made  known  to  the  chief,  Col  Hadjo, 
his  determination  to  that  efiect  In  August, 
1837,  he  declared  peremptorily  to  this  chief,  fw 
the  information  of  all  the  Indians,  that  none 
were  to  come  in,  except  to  renuun,  and  to  emi- 
grate ;  that  no  one  coming  into  his  camp  again 
should  be  allowed  to  go  out  of  it,  but  should  be 
considered  as  having  surrendered  with  a  view 
to  emigrate  under  the  treaty,  and  should  be  de- 
tained for  that  purpose.  In  October,  Osceola 
came  in,  in  violation  of  that  order,  and  was  de- 
tained in  compliance  with  it  This  is  a  seoond 
reason  for  the  justification  of  General  Jesup,  and 
is  of  itself  sufficient  to  justify  him ;  but  there 
is  more  justification  yet,  and  I. will  state  it. 

8.  Osceola  had  broken  a  tnice^  and^  there- 
fore, was  liable  to  be  detained  whenever  he 
could  be  taken. 

The  facts  were  these :  The  hostile  chiefs  en- 
tered into  an  agreement  for  a  truce  at  Fort 
King,  in  August,  1837,  and  agreed :  1.  Not  to 
commit  any  act  of  hostility  upon  the  whites ; 
2.  Not  to  go  east  of  the  St  John's  river,  or 
north  of  Fort  Mellon.  This  truce  was  broken 
by  the  Indians  in  both  points.  A  citizen  was 
killed  by  them,  and  they  passed  both  to  the 
east  of  the  St  John's  and  far  north  of  Fort  Mel- 
lon. As  violators  of  this  truce,  General  Jesiq> 
had  a  right  to  detain  any  of  the  hostiles  whidi 


80 


THIRTT  YEAB8*  VIEW. 


came  into  hiB  hands,  and  Osceola  was  one  of 
these. 

Here,  sir,  are  three  grounds  of  justification, 
either  of  them  sufficient  to  justify  the  conduct 
of  General  Jesup  towards  Powell,  as  the  gen- 
tlemen call  him.  The  first  of  the  three  reasons 
applies  personally  and  exclusively  to  that  half- 
breed  ;  the  other  two  apply  to  all  the  hostile 
Indians,  and  justify  the  seizure  and  detention  of 
others,  who  have  been  sent  to  the  West. 

^  much  for  justification ;  now  for  the  expe- 
diency of  having  detained  this  Indian  PowelL  I 
hold  it  was  expedient  to  exercise  the  right  of 
detaining  him,  and  prove  this  expediency  by 
reasons  both  a  priori  and  a  posteriorL  His 
previous  treachery  and  crimes,  and  his  well 
known  disposition  for  farther  treachery  and 
crimes,  made  it  right  for  the  officers  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  to  avail  themselves  of  the  first  justi- 
fiable occasion  to  put  an  end  to  his  depredations 
by  confining  his  person  until  the  war  was  over. 
This  is  a  reason  a  priori.  The  reason  a  pos- 
teriori is,  that  it  has  turned  out  right ;  it  has 
operated  well  upon  the  mass  of  the  Indians,  be- 
tween eighteen  and  nineteen  hundred  of  which, 
negroes  inclusive,  have  since  surrendered  to 
Gen.  Jesup.  This,  sir,  is  a  £etct  which  contains 
an  argument  which  overturns  all  that  can  be 
said  on  this  fioor  against  the  detention  of  Osce- 
ola. The  Indians  themselves  do  not  view  that 
act  as  perfidious  or  dishonorable,  or  the  viola- 
tion of  a  flag,  or  even  the  act  of  an  enemy.  They 
do  not  condemn  General  Jesup  on  account  of  it, 
but  no  doubt  respect  him  the  more  for  refusing 
to  be  made  the  dupe  of  a  treacherous  artifice. 
A  bit  of  white  linen,  stripped,  perhaps  from  the 
body  of  a  murdered  child,  or  its  murdered  mo- 
ther, was  no  longer  to  cover  the  insidious  visits 
of  spies  and  enemies.  A  firm  and  manly  course 
was  taken,  and  the  efiect  was  good  upon  the 
minds  of  the  Indians.  The  number  since  sur^ 
rendered  is  proof  of  its  effect  upon  their  minds ; 
and  this  proof  should  put  to  blush  the  lamenta- 
tions which  are  here  set  up  for  Powell,  and  the 
oennire  thrown  upon  General  Jesup. 

No,  sir,  no.  General  Jesup  has  been  guilty 
of  no  perfidy,  no  fraud,  no  violation  of  flags. 
He  has  done  nothing  to  stain  his  own  charac- 
ter, or  to  dishonor  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 
If  he  has  erred,  it  has  been  on  the  side  of  hu- 
manity, generosity,  and  forbearance  to  the  In- 
diana. If  he  has  erred,  as  some  suppose,  in  los- 
ing time  to  parley  with  the  Indiana,  that  error 


has  been  on  the  side  of  humanity,  and  of  confi- 
dence in  them.  But  has  he  erred  ?  Has  his 
policy  been  erroneous?  Has  the  country  been 
a  loser  by  his  policy  1  To  all  these  questions, 
let  results  give  the  answer.  Let  the  twenty- 
two  hundred  Indians,  abstracted  from  the  hos- 
tile ranks  by  his  measures,  be  put  in  contrast 
with  the  two  hundred,  or  less,  killed  and  taken 
by  his  predecessors.  Let  these  results  be  com- 
pared ;  and  let  this  comparison  answer  the 
question  whether,  in  point  of  fact,  there  has 
been  any  error,  even  a  mistake  of  judgment,  in 
his  mode  of  conducting  the  war. 

The  senator  tcom  South  Carolina  [Mr.  Prss- 
ton]  complains  of  the  length  of  time  which 
General  Jesup  has  consumed  without  bringing 
the  war  to  a  dose.  Here,  again,  the  chapter 
of  comparisons  must  be  resorted  to  in  order  to 
obtain  the  answer  which  justice  requires.  How 
long,  I  pray  you,  was  General  Jesup  in  com- 
mand ?  firom  December,  1836,  to  May,  1838 ; 
nominally  he  was  near  a  year  and  a  half  in 
command ;  in  reali^  not  one  year,  for  the  scim- 
mer  months  admit  of  no  military  operations  in 
that  peninsula.  His  predecessors  commanded 
from  December,  1835,  to  December,  1836;  a 
term  wanting  but  a  few  months  of  as  long  a  pe- 
riod as  the  command  of  General  Jesup  lasted. 
Sir,  there  is  nothing  in  the  ^length  of  time  which 
this  general  commanded,  to  furnish  matter  for 
disadvantageous  comparisons  to  him;  but  the 
contrary.  He  reduced  the  hostiles  about  one- 
half  in  a  year  and  a  half;  they  reduced  them 
about  the  one-twentieth  in  a  year.  The  whole 
number  was  about  5,000 ;  General  Jesup  di- 
minished their  number,  during  his  command, 
2,200;  the  other  generals  had  reduced  them 
about  150.  At  the  rate  he  proceeded,  the  work 
would  be  finished  in  about  three  years ;  at  the 
rate  they  proceeded,  in  about  twenty  years. 
Tet  he  is  to  be  censured  here  for  the  length  <^ 
time  consumed  without  bringmg  the  war  to  a 
close.  He^  and  he  alone,  is  selected  for  cen- 
sure. Sir,  I  dislike  these  comparisons ;  it  is  a 
disagreeable  task  for  me  to  mak6  them ;  but  I 
am  driven  to  it,  and  mean  no  disparagement  to 
others.  The  violence  with  which  General  Jesup 
is  assailed  here— the  comparisons  to  which  he 
has  been  sntyected  in  order  to  d^;rade  him — 
leave  me  no  alternative  but  to  abandon  a  meri- 
torious officer  to  unmerited  censure,  or  to  do- 
fend  him  in  the  same  manner  in  which  he  has 
beeaassailKL 


ANNO  1888.    HABTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


81 


The  essentul  policy  of  Geoenl  Jesap  has 
been  to  indooe  the  Indiana  to  come  in — ^to  rar- 
render — and  to  emigrate  under  the  treaty. 
This  has  been  his  main,  but  not  his  exchiaiTe, 
policy ;  military  operations  have  been  combined 
with  it;  many  d^irmishes  and  actions  haye 
been  fought  since  he  had  command ;  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  this  general,  who  has  been  so 
much  assailed  on  this  floor,  is  the  only  com- 
noander-in-chief  in  Florida  who  has  been  wound- 
ed in  battle  at  the  head  of  his  command.  His 
person  marked  with  the  scars  of  wounds  re- 
ceived in  Canada  during  the  late  war  with 
Great  Britain,  has  also  been  struck  by  a  bullet, 
in  the  ftce,  in  the  peninsula  of  Florida ;  yet 
these  wounds — ^the  services  in  the  late  war 
with  Great  Britain — the  removal  of  upwards 
of  16,000  Creek  Indians  from  Alabama  and 
Georgia  to  the  West,  during  the  summer  of 
1836 — and  more  than  twenty-five  years  of  hon- 
orable employment  in  the  public  service — all 
these  combined,  and  an  unsullied  private  char- 
acter into  the  bargain,  have  not  been  able  to 
protect  the  feelings  of  this  officer  from  lacera- 
tion on  this  floor.  Have  not  been  sufficient  to 
protect  his  feelings !  for,  as  to  his  character, 
that  is  untouched.  The  base  accusation — the 
vague  denunciation — ^the  ofiensive  epithets  em- 
ployed here,  may  lacerate  feelings,  but  they  do 
not  reach  character ;  and  as  to  the  military  m- 
quiry,  which  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
speaks  of^  I  undertake  to  say  that  no  such  in- 
quiry will  ever  take  place.  Congress,  or  either 
branch  of  Congress,  can  order  an  inquiry  if  it 
pleases;  but  before  it  orders  an  inquiry,  a 
probable  cause  hat  to  be  shown  for  it;  and 
that  probable  cause  never  has  been,  and  never 
will  be,  shown  in  General  Jesup's  case. 

The  senator  from  South  Carolina  speaks  of 
the  large  force  which  was  committed  to  Gene- 
ral Jesup,  and  the  little  that  was  effected  with 
that  force.  Is  the  senator  aware  of  the  extent 
of  the  country  over  which  his  operations  ex- 
tended ?  that  it  extended  from  31  to  25  degrees 
of  north  latitude  ?  that  it  began  in  the  Okefe- 
nokee  swamp  in  Georgia,  and  stretched  to  the 
Everglades  in  Florida  ?  that  it  was  near  five 
hundred  miles  ia  length  in  a  straight  line,  and 
the  whole  sprinkled  over  with  swamps,  one  of 
which  alone  was  equal  in  length  to  the  distance 
between  Washington  City  and  Philadelphia? 
But  it  was  not  extent  of  country  alone,  with  its 
Vol.  n.— 6 


ftetaeases,  its  dimate,  and  its  wily  foe,  that  had 
to  be  contended  with ;  a  new  element  of  oppo- 
sition was  encountered  by  General  Jesup,  in 
the  poisonous  information  which  was  conveyed 
to  the  Indians'  minds,  which  encouraged  them 
to  hold  out,  and  of  which  he  had  not  even 
knowledge  for  a  long  time.  This  was  the 
quantity  of  false  information  which  was  con- 
veyed to  the  Indians,  to  stimulate  and  encour- 
age their  resistance.  General  Jesup  took  com- 
mand just  after  the  presidential  election  of  1836. 
The  Indians  were  informed  of  this  change  of 
presidents,  and  were  taught  to  believe  that  the 
white  people  had  broke  General  Jackson^that 
was  the  phrase — ^had  broke  General  Jackson 
for  making  war  upon  them.  They  were  also 
informed  that  General  Jesup  was  carrying  on 
the  war  without  the  leave  of  Congress ;  that 
Congress  would  give  no  more  money  to  raise 
"soldiers  to  fight  tiiem;  and  that  he  dared  not 
come  home  to  Congress.  Yes,  he  dared  not 
come  home  to  Congress  !  These  poor  Indians 
seem  to  have  been  informed  of  intended  move- 
ments against  the  general  in  Congress,  and  to 
have  relied  upon  them  both  to  stop  supplies 
and  to  punish  the  general.  Moreover,  they 
were  told,  that,  if  they  surrendered  to  emigrate, 
they  would  receive  the  worst  treatment  on  the 
way  J  that,  if  a  child  cried,  it  would  be  thrown 
overboard ;  if  a  chief  gave  offence,  he  would  be 
put  in  irons.  Who  the  immediate  informants 
of  all  these  fine  stories  were,  cannot  be  exactly 
ascertained.  They  doubtless  originated  with 
that  mass  of  fknatics,  devoured  by  a  morbid 
sensibility  for  negroes  and  Indians,  which  are 
now  Don  Q^ixoting  over  the  land,  and  filling 
the  public  ear  with  so  many  sympathetic  tales 
of  their  own  fabrication. 

General  Jesup  has  been  censured  for  writing 
a  letter  disparaging  to  his  predecessor  in  com- 
mand. If  he  did  so,  and  I  do  not  deny  it, 
though  I  have  not  seen  the  letter,  nobly  has  he 
made  the  amends.  Publicly  and  officially  has 
he  made  amends  ibr  a  private  and  unofficial 
wrong.  In  an  officifd  report  to  the  war  de- 
partment, published  by  that  department,  he 
said : 

^  As  an  act  of  justice  to  all  my  predecessors 
in  command,  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  say  that 
the  difficulties  attending  military  operations  in 
this  country,  can  be  properly  appreciated  only 
by  those  acquainted  with  them.    I  have  advan- 


82 


THIRTY  TEABSf  VIEW. 


tagee  which  neither  of  them  possessed,  in  bet- 
ter preparations  and  more  abundant  supplies; 
and  I  found  it  impossible  to  operate  with  any 
prospect  of  suocess,  until  I  had  established  a 
line  of  depots  across  the  country.  If  I  have  at 
any  time  said  aught  in  disparagement  of  the 
operations  of  others  in  Florida^  either  verbally 
or  in  writing,  officially  or  unofficially,  know- 
ing the  country  as  I  now  know  it,  I  consider 
myself  bound  as  a  man  of  honor  solemnly  to 
retract  it" 

Such  are  the  amends  which  General  Jesup 
makes'-frank  and  voluntary— full  and  kindly — 
worthy  of  a  soldier  towards  brother  soldiers ; 
and  &r  more  honorable  to  his  predecessors  in 
command  than  the  disparaging  comparisons 
which  have  been  instituted  here  to  do  them 
honor  at  his  expense. 

The  expenses  of  this  war  is  another  head  of 
attack  pressed  into  this  debate,  and  directed 
more  against  the  administration  than  against 
the  conmianding  general.  It  is  said  to  have 
cost  twenty  millions  of  dollars ;  but  that  is  an 
error — an  error  of  near  one-half.  An  actual 
return  of  all  expenses  up  to  February  last, 
amounts  to  nine  and  a  half  millions ;  the  rest 
of  the  twenty  millions  go  to  the  suppression 
of  hostilities  in  other  places,  and  with  other  In- 
dians, principally  in  Qeoigia  and  Alabama,  and 
with  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks.  Sir,  this 
charge  of  expense  seems  to  be  a  standing  head 
with  the  opposition  at  present.  Every  speech 
gives  us  a  dish  of  it ;  and  the  expenditures  un- 
der General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  are 
constantly  put  in  contrast  with  those  of  pre- 
vious administrations.  Granted  that  these  ex- 
penditures are  larger — ^that  they  are  greatly  in- 
creased ;  yet  what  are  they  increased  for  ? 
Are  they  increased  for  the  personal  expenses  of 
the  officers  of  the  government,  or  for  great  na- 
tional objects  ?  The  increase  is  for  great  ob- 
jects I  such  as  the  extinction  of  Indian  titles  in 
the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi— the  removal 
of  whole  nations  of  Indians  to  the  west  of  the 
Mississippi — their  subsistence  for  a  year  after 
they  arrive  there — actual  wars  with  some  tribes 
— the  fear  of  it  with  others,  and  the  consequent 
continual  calls  for  militia  and  volunteers  to 
preserve  peace — ^large  expenditures  for  the  per- 
manent defences  of  the  country,  both  by  land 
and  water,  with  a  pension  list  for  ever  increas- 
ing ;  and  other  heads  of  expenditure  which  are 
for  future  national  benefit,  and  not  for  present 


individual  enjoyment.  Stripped  of  all  these 
heads  of  expenditure,  and  tilie  expenses  of  the 
present  administration  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  a  comparison  with  other  periods.  Stated 
in  the  gross,  as  is  usually  done,  and  many  igno- 
rant people  are  deceived  and  imposed  upon, 
and  believe  that  there  has  been  a  great  waste 
of  public  money;  pursued  into  the  detail,  and 
these  expenditures  will  be  found  to  have  been 
made  for  great  national  objects^-objects  which 
no  man  would  have  undone,  to  get  back  the 
money,  even  if  it  was  possible  to  get  back  the 
money  by  undoing  the  objects.  No  one,  for 
example,  would  be  willing  to  bring  back  the 
Creeks,  tilie  Cherokees,  the  Choctaws,  vaA 
Chickasaws  into  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Geo^ 
gia,  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina,  even  if  the 
tens  of  millions  which  it  has  cost  to  remore 
them  could  be  got  back  by  that  means ;  and  60 
of  the  other  expenditures:  yet  these  eternal 
croakers  about  expense  are  blaming  the  goT- 
emment  for  these  expenditures. 

Sir,  I  have  gone  over  the  answers,  which  1 
proposed  to  make  to  the  accusations  of  the  sen- 
ators from  New  Jersey  and  South  Carolina.  1 
have  shown  them  to  be  totally  mistaken  in  all 
their  assumptions  and  imputations.  I  hare 
shown  that  there  was  no  fraud  upon  the  In- 
dians in  the  treaty  at  Fort  Gibson— that  the 
identical  chiefs  who  made  that  treaty  have 
since  been  the  hostile  chiefs— that  the  assassi- 
nation and  massacre  of  an  agent,  two  gonat- 
ment  expresses,  an  artillery  officer,  five  dtizens, 
and  one  hundred  and  twelve  men  of  Major 
Dade's  command,  caused  the  war— that  our 
troops  are  not  subject  to  censure  for  inefficien- 
cy— that  General  Jesup  has  been  wrongAiUy 
denounced  upon  this  floor — and  that  even  the 
expense  of  the  Florida  war,  resting  as  it  does  in 
figures  and  in  documents,  has  been  vastly  over- 
stated  to  produce  effect  upon  the  public  mind. 
All  these  things  I  have  shown ;  and  I  conclade 
with  saying  that  cost,  and  time,  and  loss  of 
men,  are  all  out  of  the  question ;  that,  for  ontr 
rages  so  wanton  and  so  horrible  as  those  which 
occasioned  this  war,  the  national  honor  requires 
the  most  ample  amends ;  and  the  national  safe^ 
requires  a  future  guarantee  in  prosecuting  this 
war  to  a  successful  close,  and  completely  clear 
ing  the  peninsula  of  Florida  of  all  the  Indians 
that  are  upon  it 


AKNO  18S&    HABTDT  VAN  BUREIT,  PRESIDENT. 


83 


CHAPTEE   XX. 

EESXTMPTIOK  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS  BY  THE 
NEW  YORK  BANKS. 

The  snspensioii  oommenoed  on  tiie  10th  of  May 
in  New  York,  and  was  followed  throughout  the 
country.  In  August  the  New  York  hanks  pro- 
posed to  all  others  to  meet  in  convention,  and 
a^ree  upon  a  time  to  commence  a  general  re- 
sumption. That  movement  was  frustrated  by 
the  opposition  of  the  Philadelphia  banks,  ibr 
the  reason,  as  given,  that  it  was  better  to  await 
the  action  of  the  extra  session  of  Congress, 
then  convoked,  and  to  meet  in  September. 
The  extra  session  adjourned  early  in  October, 
and  the  New  York  buiks,  faithful  to  the  prom- 
ised resumption  of  specie  payments,  immediate- 
ly issued  another  invitation  for  the  general  con- 
yention  of  the  banks  in  that  city  on  the  27th 
of  November  ensuing,  to  cany  into  effect  the 
object  of  the  meeting  which  had  been  invited 
in  the  month  of  August  The  27th  of  Novem- 
ber arrived;  a  laige  proportion  of  the  delin- 
quent banks  had  accepted  the  invitation  to  send 
delegates  to  the  convention:  but  its  meeting 
was  again  frustrated — and  from  the  same  quar- 
ter— the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  the  in- 
stitutions under  its  influence.  They  then  re- 
solved to  send  a  c(»nmittee*  to  Philadelphia  to 
ascertain  from  the  banks  when  they  would  be 
ready,  and  to  invite  them  to  name  a  day  when 
they  would  be  able  to  resume ;  and  if  no  day 
was  definitely  fixed,  to  inform  them  that  the 
New  York  banks  would  commence  specie  pay- 
ments without  waiting  for  their  co-operation. 
The  Philadelphia  banks  would  not  co-operate. 
They  would  not  agree  to  any  definite  time  to 
take  even  initiatory  steps  towards  resumption. 
This  was  a  disappointment  to  the  public  mind 
— ^that  laige  part  of  it  which  still  had  fiuth  in 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  con- 
tradiction which  it  presented  to  all  the  previous 
professions  of  that  institution,  required  explan- 
ations, and,  if  possible,  reconciliation  with  past 
declarations.  The  occasion  called  for  the  pen 
of  Mr.  Biddle,  always  ready,  always  confident, 
always  presenting  an  easy  remedy,  and  a  sure 
one,  for  all  the  diseases  to  which  banks,  cniv 
rency,  and  finance  were  heir.     It  called  for 


another  letter  to  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  that 
is  to  say,  to  the  public,  through  the  distinction 
of  that  gentleman's  name.  It  came — tiie  most 
elaborate  and  ingenious  of  its  species ;  its  bur- 
den, to  prove  the  entire  ability  of  the  bank 
over  which  he  presided  to  pay  in  fikll,  and 
without  reserve,  but  its  intention  not  to  do  so, 
on  account  of  its  duty  to  others  not  able  to  fol- 
low its  example,  and  which  might  be  entirely 
mined  by  a  premature  e£R>rt  to  do  so.  And 
he  concluded  with  condensing  his  opinion  into 
a  sentence  of  characteristic  and  sententious 
brevity :  '^  On  the  rohole,  ihe  coune  which  in 
my  judgment  the  banks  ought  to  pursue,  is 
simply  this :  7%e  banks  should  remain  exact' 
ly  as  they  are— prepared  to  resume,  but  not 
yet  resuming.^  But  he  did  not  stop  there,  but 
in  another  publication  went  the  length  of  a 
direct  threat  of  destruction  against  the  New 
York  banks  if  they  should,  in  conformity  to 
their  promise,  venture  to  resume,  saying :  ^  Let 
the  banks  of  the  Empire  State  come  up  fh»m 
their  Elba^  and  enjoy  their  hundred  days  of  re- 
sumption !  a  Waterloo  awaits  them,  and  a  Saint 
Helena  is  prepared  for  them." 

The  banks  of  New  York  were  now  thrown 
upon  the  necessity  of  acting  without  the  con- 
currence of  those  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  ftot 
under  apprehension  of  opposition  and  counter- 
action ttom  that  quarter.  They  were  publicly 
pledged  to  act  without  her,  and  besides  were 
under  a  legal  obligation  to  do  sa  The  legisla- 
ture of  the  State,  at  the  time  of  the  suspension, 
only  legalised  it  for  one  year.  The  indulgence 
would  be  out  on  the  15th  of  May,  and  for- 
feiture of  charter  was  the  penalty  to  be  incurred 
throughout  the  State  for  continuing  it  beyond 
that  time.  The  dty  banks  had  the  control  of 
the  movement,  and  they  invited  a  convention 
of  delegates  from  all  the  banks  in  the  Union  to 
meet  in  New  York  on  the  15th  of  April.  One 
hundred  and  forty-three  delegates,  from  the 
principal  banks  in  a  minority  of  the  States,  at- 
tended. Only  delegates  firom  fifteen  States 
voted — Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  South  Car- 
olina among  the  absoit;  which,  as  including  the 
three  principal  commercial  cities  on  the  Atlan- 
tic board  south  of  New  York,  was  a  heavy  de- 
fidcation  from  the  weight  of  the  convention. 
Of  the  fifteen  States,  thirteen  voted  for  resuming 
on  the  Ist  day  of  January,  1839— «  delay  of 
near  nine  months ;  two  voted  against  that  day 


84 


THIRTy  TEARS'  VIEW. 


— ^New  Tork  and  MisoBsippi ;  and  (as  it  often 
happens  in  concurring  yotes)  for  reasons  di- 
rectly opposite  to  each  other.  Hie  New  Tork 
banks  so  yoted  because  the  day  was  too  distant 
— those  of  Mississippi  because  it  was  too  near. 
The  New  Tork  delegates  wished  the  15th  of 
May,  to  avoid  the  penalty  of  the  State  law : 
those  of  Mississippi  wished  the  Ist  of  January, 
1840,  to  allow  them  to  get  in  two  more  cotton 
crops  before  the  great  pay-day  came.  The  re- 
sult of  the  voting  showed  the  still  great  power 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The  dele- 
gates of  the  banks  of  ten  States,  including  those 
with  which  she  had  most  business,  eitiier  re- 
fused to  attend  the  convention,  or  to  vote  after 
having  attended.  The  rest  chiefly  voted  the 
late  day,  "  to  faoar  the  views  of  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore  rather  than  those  of  New 
York*^  So  said  the  delegates,  ^^  frankly  avow- 
ing that  their  interests  and  sympathies  were 
with  the  former  two  rather  than  with  the  lat- 
ter:^ The  banks  of  the  State  of  New  Tork 
were  then  left  to  act  alone — and  did  so.  Sim- 
ultaneously with  the  issue  of  the  convention 
recommendation  to  resume  on  the  first  day  of 
January,  1839,  they  issued  another,  recommend- 
ing all  the  banks  of  the  State  of  New  Tork  to 
resume  on  the  lOth  day  of  May,  1838 ;  that  is 
to  say,  within  twenty-five  days  of  that  time. 
Those  of  the  city  declared  their  determination 
to  begin  on  that  day,  or  earlier,  expressing  their 
belief  that  they  had  nothing  to  fear  but  from 
the  opposition  and  '^  deliberate  animosity  of 
others" — ^meaning  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  The  New  Tork  banks  all  resumed  at 
the  day  named.  Their  example  was  immedi- 
ately followed  by  others,  even  by  the  institu- 
tions in  those  States  whose  delegates  had  voted 
for  the  long  day;  so  that  within  sixty  days 
thereafter  the  resumption  was  almost  general, 
leaving  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  uncover- 
ed, naked,  and  promment  at  the  head  of  all  the 
delinquent  banks  in  the  Union.  But  her  power 
was  still  great.  Her  stock  stood  at  one  hun- 
dred and  twelve  dollars  to  the  share,  being  a 
premium  of  twelve  dollars  on  the  hundred.  In 
Congress,  which  was  still  in  session,  not  a  tittle 
was  abated  of  her  pretensions  and  her  assurance 
— ^her  demands  for  a  recharter — ^for  the  repeal 
of  the  spade  circulai^-and  for  the  condemnation 
of  the  administration,  as  the  author  of  the  mis- 
fortones  of  the  country  \  of  which  evils  there 


were  none  except  the  bank  suspensions,  of 
which  she  had  been  the  secret  prime  oontmer, 
and  was  now  the  detected  promoter.  Brie% 
before  the  New  Tork  resumption,  Mr.  Webeter, 
the  great  advocate  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  truest  exponent  of  her  wishes, 
harangued  the  Senate  in  a  set  speech  in  her  fa- 
vor, of  which  some  extracts  will  show  the  de- 
sign and  spirit : 

"And  now,  sir,  we  see  the  upshot  of  the  ex- 
periment We  see  around  us  bankrupt  corpo- 
rations and  broken  promises ;  but  we  see  no 
promises  more  really  and  emphatioiJIy  broken 
than  all  those  promises  of  the  administration 
which  gave  us  assurance  of  a  better  currency. 
These  promises,  now  broken,  notoriouslj  and 
openly  broken,  if  they  cannot  be  performed, 
ought,  at  least,  to  be  acknowledged.  The  gov- 
ernment ought  not,  in  common  fairness  and 
common  honesty,  to  deny  its  own  respongibili- 
ty,  seek  to  escape  from  the  demands  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  to  hide  itself  out  of  the  way  and  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  process  of  public  opinion, 
by  retreating  into  this  sub-treasury  system. 
liet  it,  at  least,  come  forth ;  let  it  bear  a  port  of 
honesty  and  candor ;  let  it  confess  its  promises, 
if  it  cannot  perform  them  \  and,  above  all.  now, 
even  now,  at  this  late  hour,  let  it  renounce 
schemes  and  projects,  the  inventions  of  pre- 
sumption, and  the  resorts  of  desperation,  and 
let  it  address  itself,  in  all  good  faith,  to  the  great 
work  of  restoring  tne  curren(7  by  approved  and 
constitutional  means. 

^  What  say  these  millions  of  souls  to  the  sub- 
treasury  ?  In  the  first  place,  what  says  the  city 
of  New  Tork,  that  great  commercial  emporium, 
worthy  the  gentleman's  [Mr.  Weight]  commen- 
dation in  1834,  and  worthy  of  his  commendation 
and  my  commendation,  and  all  commendation, 
at  all  times  ?  What  sentiments,  what  opinions, 
what  feelings,  are  proclaimed  by  the  thousands 
of  merchants,  traders,  manufacturers,  and  la- 
borers ?  What  is  the  united  shout  of  all  the 
voices  of  all  her  classes  1  What  is  it  but  that 
you  will  put  down  this  new-fangled  sub-treasu- 
rv  system,  alike  alien  to  their  interests  ana 
their  feelings,  at  once,  and  for  ever  ?  What  is 
it,  but  that  in  mercy  to  the  mercantile  interest, 
the  trading  interest,  the  shipping  interest  the 
manufacturing  interest^  the  laboring  class,  and 
all  classes^  you  will  give  up  useless  and  perni- 
cious politicSi]  schemes  and  projects,  and  retiuv 
to  the  plain,  straight  course  of  wise  and  whole- 
some legislation  ?  The  sentiments  of  the  city 
cannot  be  misunderstood.  A  thousand  pens 
and  ten  thousand  tongues,  and  a  spirited  pres>^ 
make  them  all  known.  If  we  have  not  already 
heard  enough,  we  shall  hear  more.  Emtj"'' 
rassed,  vexed,  pressed  and  distressed,  as  are  her 
citizens  at  this  moment,  yet  their  resolution  is 
not  shaken,  their  spirit  is  not  broken ;  9^^  ^^ 
pend^upon  it,  they  will  not  see  their  commerce? 


ANNO  1888.    MABTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


85 


their  bnsinefls,  their  prosperity  and  their  hap- 
piness, all  sacrificed  to  preposterous  schemes 
and  political  empiricism,  without  another,  and 
a  yet  more  vigorous  straggle, 

^  Sir,  I  think  there  is  a  revolution  in  public 
opinion  now  going  on,  whatever  may  be  the 
opinion  of  the  member  from  New  York,  or 
others.  I  think  the  fall  elections  prove  this, 
and  that  other  more  recent  events  confirm  it. 
I  think  it  is  a  revolt  against  the  absolute  dicta- 
tion of  party,  a  revolt  against  coercion  on  the 
public  judgment ;  and,  especially,  agunst  the 
adoption  of  new  mischievous  expedients  on 
questions  of  deep  public  interest ;  a  revolt 
against  the  rash  and  unbridled  spirit  of  change ; 
a  revolution,  in  shor^  against  ftirther  revolu- 
tion. I  hope,  most  sincerely,  that  this  revolu- 
tion may  go  on ,  not^  sir,  for  the  sake  of  men, 
but  for  the  sake  of  measures,  and  for  the  sake 
of  the  country.  I  wish  it  to  proceed,  till  the 
whole  countiy,  with  an  imperative  unity  of 
voice,  shall  call  back  Congress  to  the  true  poUcy 
of  the  government. 

"  I  verily  believe  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  are  now  of  the  opinion  that 
a  national  bank,  properly  constituted,  limited, 
and  guarded,  is  both  constitutional  and  expe- 
dient, and  ought  now  to  be  established.  So  &r 
as  I  can  learn,  three-fourths  of  the  western  peo- 
ple are  for  it.  Their  representatives  here  can 
form  a  better  judgment ;  but  such  is  my  opinion 
upon  the  best  information  which  I  can  obtain. 
The  South  may  be  more  divided,  or  may  be 
against  a  national  institution ;  but^  lookizig 
again  to  the  centre,  the  North  and  the  East 
and  comprehending  the  whole  in  one  view,  I 
believe  the  prevalent  sentiment  is  such  as  I 
have  stated. 

"  At  the  last  session  great  pains  were  taken 
to  obtain  a  vote  of  this  and  the  other  House 
against  a  bank,  for  the  obvious  purpose  of  pla- 
cing  such  an  institution  out  of  the  fist  of  reme- 
dies, and  so  reconciling  the  people  to  the  sub- 
treasury  scheme.  WelL  sir,  and  did  those  votes 
produce  any  effect  ?  None  at  all.  The  people 
did  not,  and  do  not,  care  a  rush  for  them.  I 
never  have  seen,  or  heard,  a  single  man,  who 
paid  the  slightest  respect  to  those  votes  of  ours. 
The  honorf»)le  member,  to-day,  opposed  as  he  is 
to  a  bank,  has  not  even  alluded  to  them.  So 
entirely  vain  is  it,  sir,  in  this  country,  to  at- 
tempt to  forestall,  commit,  or  coerce  the  public 
judgment.  All  those  resolutions  fell  perfectly 
dead  on  the  tables  of  the  two  Houses.  We 
noay  resolve  what  we  please,  and  resolve  it 
when  we  please  ',  but  if  the  pieople  do  not  like 
it^  at  their  own  good  pleasure  they  will  rescind 
it;  and  they  are  not  likely  to  continue  their 
approbation  long  to  any  system  of  measures, 
however  plausible,  which  terminates  in  deep 
disappointment  of  all  their  hopes,  for  their  own 
inosperity." 

All  the  friends  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  came  to  her  assistance  in  this  last  trial 


The  two  haUs  of  Congrees  resounded  with  her 
eulogium,  and  with  condemnation  of  the  mea- 
sures of  the  administration.  It  was  a  last  effort 
to  save  her,  and  to  force  her  upon  the  federal 
government.  Multitudes  of  speakers  on  one 
side  brought  out  numbers  on  the  other — ^among 
those  on  the  side  of  the  sub-treasury  and  hard 
money,  and  against  the  whole  paper  system,  of 
which  he  considered  a  national  bank  the  cita- 
del, was  the  writer  of  this  View,  who  under- 
took to  collect  into  a  speech,  from  history  and 
experience,  the  fiMsts  and  reasons  which  would 
bearupon  the  contest,  and  act  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  candid  men,  and  show  the  country  to 
be  independent  of  banks,  if  it  would  only  wiU 
it  Some  extracts  from  that  speech  make  the 
next  chapter. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

BEBUMFTION  OF  8PBCIE  PAYMEliTS:  HISTOSI- 
CAL  NOTICES:  MB.  BEINT0N*8  BPXEOH:  EX* 
TBACT8. 

Thxke  are  two  of  those  periods,  each  ni>rlfhig 
the  termination  of  a  national  bank  charter,  and 
each  presenting  us  with  the  actual  results  of  the 
operations  of  those  institutions  upon  the  gene- 
ral currency,  and  each  replete  with  lessons  of 
instruction  applicable  to  the  present  day,  and 
to  the  present  state  of  things.  The  first  of 
these  periods  is  the  year  1811,  when  the  first 
national  bank  had  run  its  career  of  twenty 
years,  and  was  permitted  by  Congress  to  expire 
upon  its  own  limitation.  I  take  for  my  guide 
the  estimate  of  Mr.  Lloyd,  then  a  senator  in 
Congress  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
whose  dignity  of  character  and  amenity  of  man- 
ners is  80  pleasingly  remembered  by  ^oge  who 
served  with  him  here,  and  whose  intelligence 
and  accuracy  entitle  his  statements  to  the  high- 
est degree  of  credit  That  eminent  senator  es- 
timated the  total  currency  of  the  country,  at 
the  expiration  of  the  charter  of  the  first  na- 
tional bank,  at  sixty  millions  of  dollars,  to  wit : 
ten  millions  of  specie,  and  fifty  millions  in  bank 
notes.  Now  compare  the  two  quantities,  and 
mark  the  results.  Our  population  has  precisely 
doubled  itself  since  1811.  The  increase  of  our 
currency  should,  therefore,  upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  increase^  be  the  double  <tf  what  it  then 


86 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


WM ;  yet  it  is  three  times  as  great  as  it  then 
was!  The  next  period  which  chalknges  our 
attention  is  the  veto  session  of  1832,  when  the 
second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  according  to 
the  opinion  of  its  eulogists,  had  carried  the  cur- 
rency to  the  ultimate  point  of  perfection. 
What  was  the  amount  then?  According  to 
the  estimate  of  a  senator  from  Massachusetts, 
then  and  now  a  member  of  this  body  [Mr. 
Webster],  then  a  member  of  the  Finance  Com- 
mittee, and  with  eyery  access  to  the  best  infor- 
mation, the  whole  amount  of  currency  was  then 
estimated  at  about  one  hundred  millions;  to 
wit :  twenty  mfllions  in  specie,  and  serenty-five 
to  eighty  millions  in  bank  notes.  The  increase 
of  our  population  since  that  time  is  estimated 
at  twenty  per  cent. ;  so  that  the  increase  of  our 
currency,  upon  the  basis  of  increased  popula- 
tion, should  also  be  twenty  per  cent.  This 
would  give  an  increase  of  twenty  millions  of 
dollars,  making^  in  the  whole,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions.  Thus,  our  currency  in  actual 
existence,  is  nearly  one-third  more  than  either 
the  ratio  of  1811  or  of  1832  would  giro.  Thus, 
we  hare  actually  about  fifty  millions  more,  in 
this  season  of  ruin  and  destitution,  than  we 
should  haye,  if  supplied  only  in  the  ratio  of 
what  we  possessed  at  the  two  periods  of  what 
is  celebrated  as  the  best  condition  of  the  «ur^ 
rency,  and  most  prosperous  condition  of  the 
country.  So  much-  for  quantity ;  now  for  the 
solidity  of  the  currency  at  these  respectiye  pe- 
riods. How  stands  the  question  of  solidity  ? 
Sir,  it  stands  thus :  in  1811,  fiye  paper  dollars 
to  one  of  silyer ;  in  1822,  four  to  one ;  in  1838, 
one  to  one,  as  near  as  can  be !  Thus,  the  com- 
paratiye  solidity  of  the  currency  is  infinitely 
preferable  to  what  it  eyer  was  before ;  for  the 
increase,  under  the  sagacious  policy  of  General 
Jackson,  has  taken  place  precisely  where  it  was 
needed — at  the  bottom,  and  not  at  the  top ;  at 
the  foundation,  and  not  in  the  roof;  at  the  base, 
and  not  at  the  apex.  Our  paper  currency  has 
increased  but  little ;  we  may  say  nothing,  upon 
the  bases  of  1811  and  1832 ;  our  specie  has  in- 
creased immeasurably ;  no  less  than  eightrfold, 
since  1811,  and  four-fold  since  1832.  The 
whole  increase  is  specie ;  and  of  that  we  haye 
seyenty  millions  more  than  in  1811,  and  sixty 
millions  more  than  in  1832.  Such  are  the 
fruits  of  General  Jackson's  policy !  a  policy 
which  we  only  haye  to  perseyere  in  for  a  few 
years,  to  haye  our  country  as  amply  supplied 


with  gold  and  silyer  as  France  and  Holland  «r« ; 
that  France  and  HoUand  in  which  gold  is  bor- 
rowed at  three  per  cent,  per  annum^  while  we 
often  boiTOw  paper  money  at  three  per  cent  a 
month. 

But  there  is  no  specie.  Not  a  ninepenoe  to 
be  got  for  a  seryant ;  not  a  picayune  for  a  beg- 
gar; not  a  ten  cent  piece  for  the  post-ofiSoe. 
Such  is  the  assertion;  but  how  far  is  it  true  ? 
Go  to  the  banks,  and  present  their  notes  at 
their  counter,  and  it  is  all  too  true.  No  gold, 
no  silyer,  no  copper  to  be  had  there  in  redemp- 
tion of  their  solemn  promises  to  pay.  Meta- 
phorically, if  not  literally  speaking^  a  demand 
for  specie  at  the  counter  of  a  bank  might  bring 
to  the  unfortunate  applicant  more  kicks  than 
coppers.  But  change  the  direction  of  the  de- 
mand ;  go  to  the  brokers ;  present  the  bank 
note  there;  no  sooner  said  than  done;  gold 
and  silyer  spring  forth  in  any  quantity;  the 
notes  are  cashed;  you  are  thanked  for  your 
custom,  inyited  to  return  again ;  and  thus,  the 
counter  of  the  broker,  and  not  the  counter  of 
the  bank,  becomes  the  place  for  the  redemption 
of  the  notes  of  the  bank.  The  only  part  of  the 
transaction  that  remains  to  be  told,  is  the  per 
centum  which  is  shayed  off!  And,  whoeyer 
will  submit  to  that  shaying,  can  haye  all  the 
bank  notes  cashed  which  he  C9p.  carry  to  them. 
Yes,  Mr.  President,  the  brokers,  and  not  the 
bankers,  now  redeem  the  bank  notes.  There  is 
no  dearth  of  specie  for  that  purpose.  They 
haye  enough  to  cash  all  the  notes  of  the  banks, 
and  all  the  treasury  notes  of  the  goyemment 
into  the  bargain.  Look  at  their  placards  t  not 
a  yillage,  not  a  city,  not  a  town  in  the  Union, 
in  which  the  sign-boards  do  not  salute  the  eye 
of  the  passenger,  inyiting  him  to  come  in  and 
exchai^  his  bank  notes,  and  treasury  notes, 
for  gold  and  silyer.  And  why  cannot  the  banks 
redeem,  as  well  as  the  brokers?  Why  can 
they  not  redeem  their  own  notes  ?  Because  a 
veto  has  issued  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
and  because  a  political  reyolution  is  to  be  efiect- 
ed  by  injuring  the  country,  and  then  charging 
the  injury  upon  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  the 
republican  administrations.  This  is  the  reason, 
and  the  sole  reason.  The  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  its  affiliated  institutions,  and  its  politi- 
cal confederates,  are  the  sole  obstacles  to  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments.  They  alone 
preyent  the  resumption.  It  is  they  who  are 
now  in  terror  lest  the  resumption  shall  begin. 


ASmO  18S8.    KABTTir  YAS  VOKKS,  PRESIDENT. 


87 


«Dd  to  preTent  it,  we  hear  the  real  shout,  and 
feel  the  real  application  of  the  raUyiog  cry,  so 
pathetkallj  uttered  on  this  floor  hj  the  sena- 
tor from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Webstkb] — once 
more  to  the  breach^  dear  friends^  once  more  ! 

Yes,  Mr.  President^  the  cause  of  the  non-re- 
samption  of  specie  payments  is  now  plain  and 
undeniahle.  It  is  as  plain  as  the  sun  at  high 
noon,  in  a  dear  sky.  No  two  opinions  can  dif- 
fer about  it,  how  much  tongues  may  differ. 
The  cause  of  not  resuming  is  known,  and  the 
cause  of  suspension  will  soon  be  known  like- 
wise. Gentlemen  of  the  oppositMn  charge  the 
suspension  upon  the  folly,  the  wickedness,  the 
insanity,  the  misrule,  and  misgoremment  of 
the  outlandish  administration,  as  they  classi- 
cally call  it;  expressions  wluch  apply  to  the 
people  who  created  the  administration  which 
hare  been  so  much  vilified,  and  who  have  sanc- 
tioned their  policy  by  repeated  elections.  The 
opposition  charge  the  suspension  to  them — ^to 
their  policy— to  their  acts— to  the  veto  of  1832 
—the  removal  of  the  deposits  of  1833 — ^the 
Treasury  order  of  1836 — and  the  demand  for 
specie  for  the  federal  Treasury.  This  is  the 
charge  of  the  politicians,  and  of  all  who  follow 
the  lead,  and  obey  the  impulsion  of  the  dena- 
tionalized Bank  of  the  United  States.  But 
what  say  others  whose  voice  should  be  poten- 
tial, and  even  omnipotent,  on  this  question? 
What  say  the  New  York  dty  banks,  where  the 
suspension  began,  and  whose  example  was  al- 
leged for  the  sole  cause  of  suspension  by  all  the 
rest?  What  say  these  banks,  whose  po6itk>n 
is  at  the  fountain-head  of  knowledge,  and  whose 
answer  for  themselves  is  an  answer  for  alL 
What  say  they  ?  Listen,  and  you  shall  hear  I 
for  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  report  of  a  committee 
of  these  banks,  made  under  an  official  injunc- 
tion, by  their  highest  officers,  and  deliberately 
approved  by  all  the  city  institutions.  It  is 
signed  by  Messrs.  Albert  Gallatin,  George  New- 
bold,  C.  C.  lAwrenoe,  C.  Heyer,  J.  J.  Palmer, 
Preserved  Fish,  and  G.  A.  Worth, — seven  gen- 
tlemen of  known  and  established  character ;  and 
not  more  than  one  out  of  the  seven  politically 
friendly  to  the  late  and  present  administrations 
of  the  federal  government.  This  is  their  re- 
port: 

"  The  immediate  causes  which  thus  compelled 
the  banks  of  the  city  of  New  York  to  suspend 
specie  payments  on  the  10th  of  May  last,  are 


well  known.  The  simnltaneous  withdrawing 
of  the  large  public  deposits^  and  ti  excessive 
foreign  cn^ts.  combined  with  the  ^rcat  and 
unexpected  fall  in  the  price  of  the  principal  ar- 
ticle of  our  exports,  with  an  import  of  com  and 
bread  stuffs,  such  as  had  never  before  occurred, 
and  with  the  consequent  inability  of  the  coun- 
try. particuUurly  in  the  south-western  States,  to 
make  the  usual  and  expected  remittances,  did. 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  fall  principally  and 
necessarily,  on  tJie  greatest  commercial  empo- 
rium of  the  Union.  After  a  long  and  most  ar- 
duous struggle,  during  which  the  banks,  though 
not  altogether  unsuccessfully,  resisting  the  im- 
perative foreign  demand  for  the  precious  metals, 
were  gradually  deprived  of  a  great  portion  or 
their  specie;  some  unfortunate  incidents  of  a 
load  nature,  operating  in  concert  with  othor 
previous  exciting  causes,  produced  distrust  and 
panic,  and  finalfy  one  of  those  general  runs, 
which,  if  continaed,  no  banks  that  issue  paper 
money,  payable  on  deAiand  can  ever  resist ;  and 
which  soon  put  it  out  of  the  power  of  those  of 
this  dty  to  sustain  specie  payments.  The  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  the  banks  throughout 
the  whole  country,  with  as  much  rapidity  as 
the  news  of  the  suspension  in  New  York  reach- 
ed them,  without  waiting  for  an  actual  run ; 
and  principally,  if  not  exclusively,  on  the  al- 
leged grounds  of  the  effects  to  be  apprehended 
from  Uiat  suspension.  Thus,  whilst  the  New 
York  citv  banks  were  almost  drained  of  their 
specie,  those  in  other  places  preserved  the 
amount  which  they  held  before  the  final  catas- 
trophe." 

These  are  the  reasons!  and  what  becomes 
now  of  the  Philadelphia  cry,  re-echoed  by  poli- 
tacians  and  subaltern  banks,  against  the  ruinous 
measures  of  the  administration  ?  Not  a  mear 
sure  of  the  administration  mentioned  I  not  one 
alluded  to !  Not  a  word  about  the  Treasury 
order ;  not  a  word  about  the  veto  of  the  Na- 
tional Bank  charter ;  not  a  word  about  the  re- 
moval of  the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States;  not  «  word  about  the  specie 
policy  of  the  administr»tion  I  Not  one  word 
about  any  act  of  the  government,  except  that 
distribution  act,  disguised  as  a  deposit  law, 
which  was  a  measure  of  Congress,  and  not  of 
the  administration,  and  the  work  of  the  oppo- 
nents, and  not  the  friends  of  the  administration, 
and  which  encountered  its  only  opposition  in 
the  ranks  of  those  friends.  I  opposed  it,  with 
some  half  dozen  others;  and  among  my  grounds 
of  opposition,  one  was,  that  it  would  endanger 
the  deposit  banks,  especially  the  New  York 
dty  deposit  banks, — ^that  it  would  reduce  them 
to  the  alternative  of  choosing  between  breaking 


88 


THIRTr  TKABff  VIEW. 


their  customers,  tnd  being  broken  themselyes. 
This  was  the  origin  of  that  act — the  work  of 
the  opposition  on  this  floor ;  and  now  we  find 
that  yeiy  act  to  be  the  cause  which  is  put  at 
the  head  of  all  the  causes  wbich  led  to  the  sus- 
pension of  specie  payments.  Thus,  the  admin- 
istration is  absolved.  Truth  has  performed  its 
office.  A  false  accusation  is  rebuked  and 
silenced.  Censure  falls  where  it  is  due;  and 
the  authors  of  the  mischief  stand  exposed  in  the 
double  malefaction  of  having  done  the  mischief, 
and  then  charged  it  upon  the  heads  of  the  inno- 
cent 

But,  gentlemen  of  the  oj^sition  say,  there 
can  be  no  resumption  until  Congress  ^^acU 
upon  the  currency,^'*  Until  Congress  acts  upon 
the  currency !  that  is  the  phrase !  and  it  comes 
from  Philadelphia ;  and  the  translation  of  it  is, 
that  there  shall  be  no  resumption  until  Con- 
gress submits  to  Mr.  Biddle's  bank,  and  re- 
charters  that  institution.  This  is  the  language 
from  Philadelphia^  and  the  meaning  of  the  lan- 
.guage;  but,  happily,  a  diflercnt  voice  issues 
from  tiie  dty  of  New  York!  The  authentic 
notification  is  issued  from  the  banks  of  that 
dty,  pledging  themselves  to  resume  by  the  10th 
day  of  May.  They  declare  their  ability  to  re- 
sume, and  to  continue  spede  payments;  and 
declare  they  have  nothing  to  fear,  except  from 
''"deliberate  hostility  ^^ — an  hostility  for  which 
they  allege  there  can  be  no  motive — but  of 
which  they  delicately  intimate  there  is  danger. 
Philadelphia  is  distinctly  unveiled  as  the  seat 
of  this  danger.  The  resumiog  banks  fear  hos- 
tility— deliberate  acts  of  hostility— from  that 
quarter.  They  fear  nothing  from  the  hostility, 
or  felly,  or  wickedness  of  this  administration. 
They  fear  nothing  from  the  Sub-Treasury  bill. 
They  fear  Mr.  Biddle's  bank,  and  nothing  else 
but  his  bank,  with  its  confederates  and  subal- 
terns. They  mean  to  resume,  and  Mr.  Biddle 
means  that  they  shall  not.  Henceforth  two 
flags  will  be  seen,  hoisted  from  two  great  cities. 
The  New  York  flag  will  have  the  word  resump- 
tion inscribed  upon  it;  the  Philadelphia  flag 
will  bear  the  inscription  of  non-resumption,  and 
destruction  to  all  resuming  banks. 

I  have  carefully  observed  the  conduct  of  the 
leading  banks  in  the  United  States.  The  New 
York  banks,  and  the  prindpal  deposit  banks, 
had  a  cause  for  stopping  which  no  others  can 
plead,  or  did  plead.    I  announced  that  cause. 


not  once,  but  many  times,  on  this  floor ;  not 
only  during  the  passage  of  the  distribution  law, 
but  during  the  discossion  of  those  femous  Isod 
bills,  which  passed  this  chamber ;  and  one  of 
which  ordered  a  peremptory  distribution  of 
sixty-four  millions,  by  not  only  taking  what 
was  in  the  Treasury,  but  by  reaching  back,  and 
taking  all  the  proceeds  of  the  land  sales  for 
years  preceding.  I  then  declared  in  my  place, 
and  that  repeatedly,  that  the  banks,  havlDg 
lent  this  money  under  our  instigation,  if  called 
upon  to  reimburse  it  in  this  manner,  must  be 
reduced  to  the  alternative  of  breaking  their 
customers,  or  of  being  broken  themselves. 
When  the  New  York  banks  stopped,  1  made 
great  allowances  for  them ;  but  I  could  not  jusr 
tify  others  for  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
followed  their  example ;  and  stiU  less  can  I  jus- 
tify them  for  their  tardiness  in,  following  the 
example  of  the  same  banks  in  resuming.  Now 
that  the  New  York  banks  have  come  forward 
to  redeem  their  obligations,  and  have  shown 
that  sensibility  to  their  own  honor,  and  that 
regard  for  the  punctual  performance  of  their 
promises,  which  once  fbrmed  the  pride  and 
glory  of  the  merchant's  and  the  bonkei^'s  cha^ 
acter,  I  feel  the  deepest  anxiety  for  their  sno- 
cess  in  the  great  contest  which  is  to  ensa& 
Their  enemy  is  a  cunnii^  and  a  poweriiil  oney 
and  as  wicked  and  unscrupulous  aa  it  is  cunning 
and  strong.  Twelve  years  ago,  the  president  of 
that  bank  which  now  forbids  other  banks  to  re- 
sume, declared  in  an  official  communication  to 
the  Finance  Committee  of  this  body,  ^tM 
there  foere  but  few  State  banks  which  the  Bcaik 
of  the  United  States  could  not  DESTROY 
by  an  exertion  of  its  PO  WER^  Since  that 
time  it  has  become  more  powerful;  and,  besides 
its  political  strength,  and  its  allied  institution^ 
and  its  exhaustless  mine  of  resurrection  notes, 
it  is  computed  by  its  friends  to  wield  a  power 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars !  all 
at  the  beck  and  nod  of  one  single  man !  for  his 
automaton  directors  are  not  even  thought  of! 
The  wielding  of  this  immense  power,  and  its 
fetal  direction  to  the  destruction  of  tiie  resum- 
ing banks,  presents  the  prospect  of  a  fearful 
conflict  ahead.  Many  of  the  local  banks  will 
doubtless  perish  in  it;  many  individuals  will 
be  ruined ;  much  mischief  will  be  done  to  the 
commerce  and  to  the  business  of  different 
places ;  and  all  the  destruction  that  is  axxom^ 


ANNO  18S8.    MABfira  VAIT  BUBSN,  PBSSIDENT. 


89 


pliflhed  will  be  charged  iqxm  some  act  of  the 
administration — ^no  matter  what — ^for  whateTer 
is  given  out  from  the  Philadelphia  head  is  incon* 
tinently  repeated  by  ail  the  obsequious  follow- 
ers, until  the  signal  is  given  to  open  upon  some 
new  cry. 

Sir,  the  honest  commercial  banks  have  re- 
somed,  or  mean  to  resume.  They  have  re- 
sumed, not  upon  the  fictitious  and  delusive 
credit  of  legislative  enactments,  but  upon  the 
solid  basis  of  gold  and  silver.  The  hundred 
millions  of  specie  which  we  have  accumulated 
in  the  country  has  done  the  business.  To  that 
hundred  milli<»is  the  country  is  indebted  for 
this  early,  easy,  proud  and  glorious  resumption ! 
— and  here  let  us  do  justice  to  the  men  of  this 
day — ^to  the  policy  of  General  Jackson — and  to 
the  success  of  the  ezperiments^to  which  we 
are  indebted  for  these  one  hundred  millions. 
Let  us  contrast  the  events  and  effects  of  the 
stoppages  in  1814^  and  in  1819,  with  the  events 
and  effects  of  the  stoppage  in  1837,  and  let  us 
see  the  difference  between  them,  and  the 
causes  of  that  differenee.  The  stoppage  of  1814 
compelled  the  government  to  use  depreciated 
bank  notes  during  the  nmamder  of  the  war, 
and  up  to  the  year  1817.  Treasuiy  notes,  even 
bearing  a  large  intenest)  were  depreciated  ten, 
twoity,  thirty  per  cent.  Bank  notes  were  at 
an  equal  depreciation.  The  losses  to  the  gov- 
ernment ttom  depredated  paper  in  loans  alone, 
during  the  war,  were  computed  by  a  committee 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  eighty  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  Individuals  suffered  in  the 
same  proportion;  and  every  transaction  of  life 
bore  the  impress  of  the  general  calamity. 
Specie  was  not  to  be  had.  There  was,  nation- 
ally speaking,  none  in  the  country.  The  spede 
standard  was  gone ;  the  measure  of  values  was 
lost ;  a  fiuetnating  p^)er  money,  ruinously  de- 
preciated, was  the  medium  of  all  exchanges.  To 
extricate  itself  from  this  deplorable  condition, 
the  expedient  of  a  National  Bank  was  resorted 
to — ^tfaat  measure  of  so  much  humiliation,  and  of 
so  much  misfortune  to  the  republican  party. 
For  the  moment  it  seemed  to  give  relief  and  to 
restore  national  prosperity;  but  treadierous 
and  delusive  was  the  seeming  boon.  The  banks 
resumed— relapsed— and  every  evil  of  the  pre- 
vious suspension  returned  upon  the  country 
with  incTMSed  and  aggravated  force. 

PoUtidans  alone  have  taken  up  this  matter, 


and  have  proposed,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
foondation  of  the  government — for  the  first 
time  in  48  years — ^to  compel  the  government  to 
receive  paper  money  for  its  dues.  The  pretext 
is,  to  aid  the  banks  m  resunung !  This,  indeed, 
is  a  marvellous  pretty  conception!  Aid  the 
banks  to  resume !  Why,  sir,  we  cannot  pre- 
vent them  from  resuming.  Every  solvent, 
commercial  bank  in  the  United  States  either 
has  resumed,  or  has  declared  its  determination 
to  do  so  in  the  course  of  the  year.  The  insol- 
vent)  and  the  political  banks,  which  did  not 
mean  to  resume,  will  have  to  foUow  the  New 
York  example,  or  die !  Mr.  Biddle's  bank  must 
follow  the  New  York  lead,  or  die!  The  good 
banks  are  with  the  country :  the  rest  we  defy. 
The  political  banks  may  resume  or  not,  as  they 
please,  or  as  they  dare.  If  they  do  not^  they 
die !  Public  opinion,  and  the  laws  of  the  land, 
vrill  exterminate  them.  If  the  president  of  the 
miscalled  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  made 
a  mistake  in  recommending  indefinite  non- 
resumption,  and  in  proposing  to  establish  a  con- 
federation of  broken  banks,  and  has  found  out 
his  mistake,  and  wants  a  pretext  for  retreating, 
let  him  invent  one.  There  is  no  difSoully  in 
the  case.  Any  thing  that  the  government 
does,  or  does  not— any  thing  that  has  happened, 
will  happen,  or  can  happen — will  answer  the 
purpose.  Let  the  president  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  give  out  a  tune :  incontinently  it 
will  be  sung  by  every  bank  man  in  the  United 
States;  and  no  matter  how  ridiculous  the  ditty 
may  be,  it  will  be  celebrated  as  superhuman 
music. 

But  an  enemy  lies  in  wait  for  them!  one 
that  foretells  their  destruction,  is  able  to  de- 
stroy them,  and  which  looks  for  its  own  suc- 
cess in  thdr  ruin.  The  report  of  the  commit- 
tee of  the  New  York  banks  expressly  refers  to 
**act8  of  deliberate  hostility "  firom  a  neigh- 
boring institution  as  a  danger  which  the  resum- 
ing  banks  might  have  to  dread.  The  reference 
was  plain  to  the  miscalled  Bank  of  the  United 
States  as  the  source  of  this  danger.  Since  that 
time  an  insolent  and  daring  threat  has  issued 
ttom  Philadelphia,  bearing  the  marks  of  its 
bank  paternity,  openly  threatening  the  resum- 
ing banks  of  New  York  with  destruction.  This 
is  the  threat :  ^  Let  the  banks  of  the  Empii^ 
State  come  up  from  their  Elba,  and  enjoy 
their  hundred  days  of  resumption;  a  Water- 


90 


THIRTY  YEAB8*  VIEW. 


loo  awaits  them^  and  a  St  Helena  is  prepared 
for  themJ^  Here  ib  a  direct  menace,  and  com- 
ing from  a  source  which  is  able  to  make  good 
what  it  threatens.  Without  hostile  attacks, 
the  resuming  banks  have  a  perilous  process  to 
go  through.  The  business  of  resumption  is  al- 
ways critical.  It  is  a  case  of  impaired  credit, 
and  a  slight  circumstance  may  ezcite  a  panic 
which  may  be  fatal  to  the  whole.  The  public 
haying  seen  them  stop  payment,  can  readily  be- 
lieve  in  the  mortality  of  their  nature,  and  that 
another  stoppage  is  as  easy  as  the  former.  On 
the  slightest  alarm — on  the  stoppage  of  a  few 
inconsiderable  banks,  or  on  the  noise  of  a 
groundless  rumor — a  general  panic  may  break 

out    Sauve  qui  pent save  himself  who  can 

— becomes  the  cry  with  the  public;  and  al- 
most every  bank  may  be  run  down.  So  it  was 
in  England  after  the  long  suspension  there  from 
1797  to  1823 ;  so  it  was  in  the  United  States 
after  the  suspension  from  1814  to  1817 ;  in  each 
country  a  second  stoppage  ensued  in  two  years 
after  resumption;  and  these  second  stoppages 
are  like  relapses  to  an  individual  after  a  spell 
of  siclmess :  the  relapse  is  more  easily  brought 
on  than  the  original  disease,  and  is  far  more 
dangerous. 

The  banks  in  England  suspended  in  1797 — 
they  broke  in  1825 ;  in  the  United  SUtes  it 
was  a  suspension  during  the  war,  and  a  break' 
ing  in  1819-20.  So  it  may  be  again  with  us. 
There  is  inmunent  danger  to  the  resuming 
banks,  without  the  pressure  of  premeditated 
hostility ;  but,  with  that  hostility,  their  pros- 
tration is  almost  certain.  The  Bank  of  the 
United  States  can  crush  hundreds  on  any  day 
that  it  pleases.  It  can  send  out  its  agents  into 
every  State  of  the  Union,  with  sealed  orders  to 
be  opened  on  a  given  day,  like  captains  sent  in- 
to different  seas ;  and  can  break  hundreds  of 
local  banks  within  the  same  hour,  and  over  an 
extent  of  thousands  of  miles.  It  can  do  this 
with  perfect  ease — ^the  more  easily  with  resur- 
rection notes — and  thus  excite  a  universal  panic^ 
crush  the  resuming  banks,  and  then  charge  the 
whole  upon  the  government  This  is  what  it 
can  do;  this  is  what  it  has  threatened;  and 
stupid  is  the  bank,  and  doomed  to  destruction, 
that  does  not  look  out  for  the  danger,  and  forti- 
fy against  it  In  addition  to  all  these  dangers, 
the  senator  from  Kentucky,  the  author  of  the 
resolution  himself,  tells  you  that  these  banks 


must  fail  againl  he  teUa  yon  ihey  will  fail !  and 
in  the  very  same  moment  he  presses  the  com- 
polsory  reception  of  all  the  notes  on  all  these 
banks  upon  the  federal  treasury !  What  is  this 
but  a  proposition  to  ruin  the  finances— to  bank- 
rupt  the  Treasury — to  disgrace  the  adminis- 
tration—to  demonstrate  the  incapacity  of  the 
State  banks  to  serve  as  the  fiscal  agents  of  the 
government,  and  to  gain  a  new  argument  for 
the  creation  of  a  national  bank,  and  the  ele- 
vation of  the  bank  party  to  power?  This  is 
the  dear  inference  from  the  proportion;  and 
viewing  it  in  this  light,  I  feel  it  to  be  my  dntjr 
to  expose,  and  to  repel  it,  as  a  pn^sition  to 
inflict  mischief  and  disgrace  upon  the  countiy. 
But  to  return  to  the  pomt,  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  effects  and  events  of  former  bank 
stoppages,  and  the  effiscts  and  events  of  the 
present  one.  The  effects  of  the  former  were  in 
sink  the  price  of  labor  and  of  property  to  the 
lowest  point,  to  fill  the  States  with  stop  laws, 
relief  laws,  property  laws,  and  tender  laws;  to 
ruin  nearly  all  debtors,  and  to  make  property 
change  lurnds  at  fatal  rates ;  to  compel  the  fed- 
eral government  to  witness  the  heavy  depreda- 
tion of  its  treasuiy  notes,  to  receive  its  reve 
nues  in  depreciated  paper ;  and,  finally,  to  sub- 
mit to  the  establishment  of  a  national  bank  as 
the  means  of  getting  it  out  of  its  deplorable 
condition — ^that  bank,  the  establishment  of 
which  was  followed  by  the  seven  years  of  the 
greatest  calamity  which  ev^r  afflicted  the  conn- 
try  ;  and  from  which  calamity  we  then  had  to 
seek  relief  from  the  tariff,  and  not  firom  more 
banks.  How  different  the  events  of  the  present 
time !  The  banks  stopped  in  May,  1837 ;  they 
resume  in  May,  1838.  Their  paper  depreciated 
but  little ;  property,  except  in  a  few  places,  was 
but  slightiy  affected ;  the  price  of  produce  con- 
tinued good ;  people  paid  their  debts  without 
sacrifices ;  treasury  notes,  in  defiance  of  politi- 
cal and  moneyed  combinations  to  depress  them, 
kept  at  or  near  par ;  in  many  places  above  it; 
the  government  was  never  brought  to  receive 
its  revenues  in  depreciated  paper;  and  finally 
all  good  banks  are  resuming  in  the  brief  space 
of  a  year;  and  no  national  bank  has  been  cre- 
ated. Such  is  the  contrast  between  the  two 
periods ;  and  now,  sir,  what  is  all  this  owing 
to?  what  is  the  cause  of  this  great  difierence  in 
two  similar  periods  of  bank  stoppages  ?  It  i^ 
owing  to  our  gold  bill  of  1834^  by  which  ^ve 


ANNO  188&    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


91 


corrected  the  errooeous  standard  of  gold,  and 
which  is  now  giring  ns  an  avalanche  of  that 
metal ;  it  is  owing  to  our  sUyer  bill  of  the  same 
year,  by  which  we  repealed  the  disastrous  act 
of  1819,  against  the  circulation  of  foreign  silver, 
and  which  is  now  spreading  the  Mexican  dol- 
lars ail  oyer  the  country ;  it  is  owing  to  our 
movements  against  small  notes  under  twenty 
dollars;  to  our  branch  mints,  and  the  increased 
activity  of  the  mother  mint ;  to  our  determina- 
tion to  revive  the  currency  of  the  constitution, 
and  to  our  determination  not  to  fiill  back  upon 
the  local  paper  currencies  of  the  States  for  a 
national  currency.  It  was  owing  to  these 
measures  that  we  have  passed  tilirough  this 
bank  stoppage  in  a  style  so  difierent  from 
what  has  been  done  heretofore.  It  is  owing  to 
our  ^ experiment"  on  the  curren<7 — to  our 
*^ humbug"  of  a  gold  and  silver  currency— to 
our  ** tampering'"  with  the  monetary  system 
— ^it  is  owing  to  these  that  we  have  had  this 
signal  success  in  this  last  stoppage,  and  are  now 
victorious  over  aU  the  prophets  of  woe,  and  over 
all  the  architects  of  mischief.  These  experi- 
menu,  this  humbugging,  and  this  tampering, 
has  increased  our  specie  in  six  years  from  twen- 
ty millions  to  one  hundred  millions ;  and  it  is 
these  one  hundred  millions  of  gold  and  silver 
which  have  sustained  the  country  and  the  gov- 
ernment under  the  shock  of  the  stoppage — ^has 
enabled  the  honest  solvent  banks  to  resume, 
and  will  leave  the  insolvent  and  political  banks 
without  excuse  or  justification  for  not  resum- 
ing. Our  experiments — ^I  love  the  word,  and 
am  sorry  that  gentlemen  of  the  opposition  have 
ceased  to  repeat  it— have  brought  an  avalanche 
of  gold  and  silver  into  the  country ;  it  is  satu- 
rating us  with  the  precious  metals,  it  has  re- 
lieved and  sustained  the  country;  and  now 
when  these  experiments  have  been  successful — 
have  triumphed  over  all  opposition — gentlemen 
cease  their  ridicule,  and  go  to  work  with  their 
paper-money  resolutions  to  force  the  govern- 
ment to  use  paper,  and  thereby  to  drive  off  the 
gold  and  silver  which  our  policy  has  brought 
into  the  country,  destroy  the  specie  basis  of  the 
banks,  give  us  an  exclusive  paper  currency 
again,  and  produce  a  new  expansion  and  a  new 
explosion. 

Justice  to  the  men  of  this  day  requires  these 
things  to  be  stated.  They  have  avoided  the 
errors  of  1811.    They  have  avoided  the  pit  into 


which  they  saw  their  predecessors  &11.  Those 
who  prevented  the  renewal  of  the  bank  charter 
in  1811,  did  nothing  else  but  prevent  its  re- 
newal ;  they  provided  no  substitute  for  the 
notes  of  the  bank ;  did  nothing  io  restore  the 
currency  of  the  constitution ;  nothing  ia  revive 
the  gold  carrmcy ;  nothing  to  increase  the  spe- 
cie of  the  country.  They  fell  back  upon  the 
exclusive  use  of  local  bank  notes,  without  even 
doing  any  thing  to  strengthen  the  local  banks, 
by  discarding  their  paper  under  twenty  dollars. 
They  feu  back  upon  the  local  banks ;  and  the 
consequence  was,  the  total  prostration,  the  ut- 
ter helplessness,  the  deplorable  inability  of  the 
government  to  take  care  of  itself  or  to  relieve 
and  restore  the  country,  when  the  banks  failed. 
Those  who  ]»«vented  the  recharter  of  the 
second  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  seen  all 
this ;  and  they  determined  to  avoid  such  error 
and  calamity.  They  set  out  to  revive  the  na- 
tional gold  currency,  to  increase  the  silver  cur> 
rency,  and  to  reform  and  strengthen  the  bank- 
ing system.  They  set  out  to  do  these  things ; 
and  they  have  done  them.  Agunst  a  powerful 
combined  political  and  moneyed  confederation, 
they  have  succeeded ;  and  the  one  hundred  mil- 
lions of  gold  and  silver  now  in  the  country  at- 
tests the  greatness  of  their  victory,  and  insures 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  against  the  ma- 
chinations of  the  widsed  and  the  factious. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

ICR.  GLAY^  fiESOLUTION  IN  FAVOR  OF  BESUM- 
INO  BANKS,  AND  MS.  BENTON^  BBMABKB  UPON 
IT. 

After  the  New  York  banks  had  resolved  to 
recommence  specie  payments,  and  before  the 
day  arrived  for  doing  so,  Mr.  Clay  submitted  a 
resolution  in  the  Senate  to  promote  resumption 
by  making  the  notes  of  the  resuming  banks  re- 
ceivable in  payment  of  all  dues  to  the  federal 
government  It  was  clearly  a  movement  in  be* 
half  of  the  delinquent  banks,  as  those  of  New 
York,  and  others,  had  resolved  to  return  to 
specie  payments  without  requiring  any  such 
condition.  Nevertheless  he  placed  the  banks 
of  the  State  of  New  York  in  the  front  rank  for 
the  benefits  to  be  received  under  his  proposed 


92 


THJETY  TEABSr  VIEW. 


measure.  Thej  had  undertaken  to  reoommenoe 
payments,  he  said,  not  from  any  ability  to  do 
so,  but  from  compulsion  under  a  law  of  the 
State.  The  receivabUity  of  their  notes  in  pay- 
ment of  all  federal  dues  would  give  them  a 
credit  and  circulation  which  would  prevent 
their  too  rapid  return  for  redemption.  So  of 
others.  It  would  be  a  help  to  all  in  getting 
through  the  critical  process  of  resumption ;  and 
in  helping  them  would  benefit  the  business  and 
prosperity  of  the  oountiy.  He  thought  it  wise 
to  give  that  assistance ;  but  reiterated  his  opin- 
ion that,  nothing  but  the  establishment  of  a 
national  bank  would  effectually  remedy  the 
evils  of  a  disordered  currency,  and  permanently 
cure  the  wounds  under  which  the  country  was 
now  suffering.  Mr.  Bentou  replied  to  Mr. 
Clay,  and  said: 

This  resolution  of  the  senator  from  Kentucky 
[Mr.  Clat],  is  to  aid  the  banks  to  resume— 4» 
aid,  encourage,  and  enable  them  to  resume. 
This  is  its  object,  as  declared  by  its  mover; 
and  it  is  offered  here  after  the  leading  banks 
have  resumed,  and  when  no  power  can  even 
prevent  the  remaining  solvent  banks  from  re- 
suming. Doubtless,  immortal  glory  will  be 
acquired  by  this  resolution !  It  can  be  heralded 
to  all  comers  of  the  country,  and  celebrated  in 
all  manner  of  speeches  and  editonals,  as  the 
miraculous  cause  of  an  event  which  had  already 
occurred !  Yes,  si]>-^ready  occurred  I  for  the 
solvent  banks  have  resumed,  are  resuming,  and 
will  resume.  Every  solvent  bank  in  the  United 
States  will  have  resumed  in  a  few  months,  and 
no  efforts  of  the  insolvents  and  their  political 
confederates  can  prevent  it.  In  New  York  the 
resumption  is  general;  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  Maine,  and  New  Jersey,  it  is  partial; 
and  every  where  the  solvent  banks  are  prepar- 
ing to  redeem  the  pledge  which  they  gave  when 
they  stopped— <Aa<  of  resuming  whenever  New 
York  did.  The  insolvent  and  political  banks 
will  not  resume  at  all,  or,  except  for  a  few 
weeks,  to  fail  again,  make  a  panic  and  a  new  run 
upon  the  resuming  banks — stop  them,  if  possi- 
ble, then  charge  it  upon  the  administration,  and 
recommence  their  lugubrious  cry  for  a  National 
Bank. 

The  resumption  will  take  place.  The  masses 
of  gold  and  silver  pouring  into  the  country 
under  the  beneficent  effects  of  General  Jackson's 
hard-money  policy,  will  enable  every  solvent 


bank  to  resume ;  a  moral  sense,  and  a  fear  of 
consequences,  will  compel  them  to  do  it  The 
importaticms  of  specie  are  now  enormous,  and 
equalling  every  demand,  if  it  was  not  sap- 
pressed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the 
quantity  of  specie  in  the  country  is  equal  to  the 
amount  of  bank  notes  in  circulation — ^that  they 
are  dollar  for  dollar— that  the  country  is  hetter 
off  for  money  at  this  day  than  it  ever  was  be- 
fore^ though  shamefully  deprived  of  the  use  of 
gold  and  silver  by  the  political  and  insolvent 
part  of  the  banks  and  their  confederate  poli- 


The  solvent  banks  will  resume,  and  Gongrefis 
cannot  prevent  them  if  it  tried.  They  have 
received  the  aid  which  they  need  in  the 
$100,000,000  of  gold  and  silver  which  now  re- 
lieves the  country,  and  distresses  the  politicisnB 
who  predicted  no  relief,  until  a  national  bank 
was  created.  Of  the  nine  hundred  banks  in  the 
country,  there  are  many  which  never  can  re- 
sume, and  which  should  not  attempt  it,  except 
to  wind  up  their  affairs.  Many  of  these  are 
rotten  to  the  core,  and  will  fidl  to  pieces  the 
instant  they  are  put  to  the  specie  test  Some 
of  them  even  fiul  now  for  rags ;  several  hare  so 
failed  in  Massachusetts  and  Ohio,  to  say  nothing 
of  those  called  wild  cats — ^the  progeny  of  a  gen- 
eral banking  law  in  Michigan.  We  want  a  re- 
sumption to  discriminate  between  banks,  and 
to  save  the  community  from  impositions. 

We  wanted  specie,  and  wo  have  got  it  Five 
years  ago— at  the  veto  session  of  1832— there 
were  but  twenty  millions  in  the  oountiy.  So 
said  the  senator  fix>m  Massachusetts  who  hss 
just  resumed  his  seat  [Mr.  Webster].  We 
have  now,  or  will  have  in  a  few  weeks,  one 
hundred  millions.  This  is  the  salvation  of  the 
country.  It  compels  resumption,  and  has  de- 
feated all  the  attempts  to  soouige  the  country 
into  a  submission  to  a  national  bank.  While 
that  one  hundred  millions  remains,  the  country 
can  place  at  defiance  the  machinations  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  its  confederate 
politicians,  to  perpetuate  the  suspension,  and  to 
continue  the  reign  of  rags  and  shin-plasters. 
Their  first  object  is  to  get  rid  of  these  hundred 
millions,  and  all  schemes  yet  tried  have  &iled 
to  counteract  the  Jacksonian  policy.  Ridicule 
was  tried  first;  deportation  of  specie  was  tried 
next;  a  forced  suspension  has  been  continued 
for  a  year ;  the  State  governments  and  the  peo* 


ANNO  18S8.    MABTIK  VAK  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


98 


pie  were  Tanqnished ;  still  the  specie  came  in, 
because  the  Meral  govermnent  created  a  de- 
mand for  it  This  firm  demand  has  fhistrated 
all  the  schemes  to  drive  off  specie,  and  to  deliyer 
up  the  country  to  the  dominion  of  the  papers 
money  party.  This  demand  has  been  the 
stumbling  block  of  that  party ;  and  this  resolu- 
tion now  comes  to  remove  that  stumbling 
block.  It  is  the  most  lerolting  proposition  ever 
made  in  this  Congress !  It  is  a  flagrant  Tiola- 
tion  of  the  constitution,  by  making  paper  money 
a  tender  both  to  and  from  the  goyemmeiit  It 
is  fraught  with  ruin  and  destruction  to  the  pub- 
lic property,  the  public  Treasury,  and  the  pub- 
lic creditors.  The  notes  of  nine  hundred  banks 
are  to  be  receired  into  the  Treasury,  and  dis- 
bursed from  the  Treasury.  They  are  to  be 
paid  out  as  well  as  paid  in.  The  ridiculous 
proYiso  of  willingness  to  receive  them  on  the 
part  of  the  public  creditor  is  an  insult  to  him ; 
for  there  is  no  choice— it  is  that  or  nothing. 
The  disbursing  officer  does  not  offer  hard  money 
with  one  hand,  and  paper  with  the  other,  and 
tell  the  creditor  to  take  his  choice.  No!  he 
ofiers  paper  or  nothing !  To  talk  of  willing^ 
ness,  when  there  is  no  choice,  is  insult,  mockery 
and  outrage.  Great  is  the  loss  of  popularity 
which  this  administration  has  sustained  from 
paying  out  depreciated  paper ;  great  the  decep- 
tion which  has  been  practised  upon  the  gov- 
ernment in  representing  this  paper  as  being 
willingly  received.  Necessity,  and  not  good 
vrin,  ruled  the  creditor;  indignation,  resent- 
ment, and  execrations  on  the  administration, 
were  the  thanks  with  which  he  received  it. 
This  has  disgraced  and  injured  the  administra- 
tion more  than  aQ  other  causes  put  together ; 
it  has  lost  it  tens  of  thousands  of  true  friends. 
It  is  now  getting  into  a  condition  to  pay  hard 
money;  and  this  resolution  comes  to  prevent 
such  payment,  and  to  continue  and  to  perpetu- 
ate the  ruinous  paper-money  payments.  Defeat 
the  resolution,  and  the  government  will  quickly 
pay  all  demands  upon  it  in  gold  and  silver,  and 
will  recover  its  popularity ;  pass  it,  and  paper 
money  will  continue  to  be  paid  out,  and  the  ad- 
ministration will  continue  to  lose  ground. 

The  resolution  proposes  to  make  the  notes  of 
900  banks  the  currency  of  the  general  goverUr 
ment,  and  the  mover  of  the  resolution  tells  you, 
at  the  same  time,  that  all  these  banks  will  fiul ! 
that  they  cannot  continue  specie  payments  if 


they  begin !  that  nothing  but  a  national  bank 
can  hold  them  up  to  specie  payments,  and  that 
we  have  no  such  bank.  This  is  the  language 
of  the  mover ;  it  is  the  language,  also,  of  all  his 
party;  more  than  that — ^it  is  the  language  of 
Mr.  Biddle's  letter — that  letter  which  is  the 
true  exposition  of  the  principles  and  policy  of 
the  opposition  party.  Here,  then,  is  a  proposi- 
tion to  compel  the  administration,  by  law,  to 
give  up  the  public  lands  for  the  paper  of  banks 
which  are  to  fail — to  fill  the  Treasury  with  the 
paper  of  such  banks — and  to  pay  out  such 
paper  to  the  public  creditors.  This  is  the  prop^ 
osition,  and  it  is  nothing  bat  another  form  of 
accomplishing  what  was  attempted  in  this 
chamber  a  few  weeks  ago,  namely,  a  direct  re- 
ceipt of  irredeemable  paper  money !  That  prop- 
osition was  too  naked  and  glaring ;  it  was  too 
rank  and  startling ;  it  was  rebuked  and  repulsed. 
A  drcuitous  operation  is  now  to  accomplish 
what  was  then  too  rashly  attempted  by  a  direct 
movement.  Receive  the  notes  of  900  banks  for 
the  lands  and  duties ;  these  900  banks  will  all 
&il  again ; — so  says  the  mover,  because  there  is 
no  king  bank  to  regulate  them.  We  have  then 
lost  our  lands  and  revenues,  and  filled  our 
Treasury  with  irredeemable  paper.  This  is 
just  the  point  umed  at  by  the  original  propo- 
sition to  receive  irredeemable  paper  in  the  first 
instance:  it  ends  in  the  reception  of  such 
paper.  If  the  resolution  passes,  there  will  be 
another  explosion :  fbr  the  reoeivability  of  these 
notes  for  the  public  dues,  and  especially  for  the 
public  lands,  will  run  out  another  vast  expan- 
sion of  the  paper  system— to  be  followed,  of 
course,  by  another  general  explosion.  The  only 
way  to  save  the  banks  is  to  hold  them  down  to 
specie  payments.  To  do  otherwise,  and  espe- 
cially to  do  what  this  resolution  proposes,  is  to 
make  the  administration  the  instrument  of  its 
own  disgrace  and  degradation — ^to  make  it  join 
in  the  ruin  of  the  finances  and  the  currency — ^in 
the  surrender  of  the  national  domain  for  broken 
bank  paper — and  in  producing  a  new  ay  for  a 
national  bank,  as  the  only  remedy  for  the  evils 
it  has  produced. 

[The  measure  proposed  by  Mr.  Olat  was  de- 
feated, and  the  experiment  of  a  specie  currency 
for  the  government  was  continued.] 


94 


THIRTY  TEABSf  VIEW. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

EESUMPTION  BY  THE  PENNSYLVANIA.  UNITED 
STATES  BANK ;  AND  OTHEBS  WHICH  FOLLOW- 
ED HEB  LEAD. 

The  lesiunption  by  the  New  York  banks  had 
its  effect  Their  example  was  potent,  either  to 
craspend  or  resume.  All  the  banks  in  the  Union 
had  followed  their  example  in  stopping  spedo 
payments:  more  than  half  of  them  followed 
them  in  recommencing  payments.  Those  which 
did  not  reoommenoe  became  obnoxious  to  pub- 
lic censure,  and  to  the  suspicion  of  either  dis- 
honesty or  insolvency.  At  the  head  of  this  de- 
linquent class  stood  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  justly  held  accountable  by  the  public 
voice  for  the  delinquency  of  all  the  rest  Her 
position  became  untenable.  She  was  compelled 
to  descend  from  it;  and,  making  a  merit  of  ne- 
cessity, she  affected  to  put  herself  at  the  head 
of  a  general  resumption ;  and  in  pursuance  of 
that  idea  invited,  in  the  month  of  July,  through 
a  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  banks,  a  general 
meeting  in  that  city  on  the  25th  of  that  month, 
to  consult  and  fix  a  time  for  resumption.  A 
few  banks  sent  delegates;  others  sent  letters, 
agreeing  to  whatever  might  be  done.  In  all 
there  were  one  hundred  and  forty  delegates,  or 
letters,  from  banks  in  nine  States;  and  these 
delegates  and  letters  forming  themselyes  into  a 
general  convention  of  banks,  passed  a  resolution 
for  a  general  resumption  on  the  13th  of  August 
ensuing.  And  thus  ended  this  struggle  to  act 
upon  the  government  through  the  distresses  of 
the  country,  and  coerce  it  into  a  repeal  of  the 
specie  circular — ^into  a  recharter  of  the  United 
States  Bank — the  restoration  of  the  deposits — 
and  the  adoption  of  the  notes  of  this  bank  for  a 
national  currency.  The  game  had  been  over- 
played. The  public  saw  through  it,  and  derived 
ft  lesson  from  it  which  put  bank  and  state  per- 
manently apart,  and  led  to  the  exclusive  use  of 
gold  and  silver  by  the  federal  government;  and 
the  exclusive  keeping  of  its  own  moneys  by  its 
own  treasurers.  All  right-minded  people  re- 
joiced at  the  issue  of  the  struggle ;  but  there 
were  some  that  well  knew  that  the  resumption 
on  the  part  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
was  hollow  and  deceptive — that  she  had  no 


foundations,  and  would  stop  again,  and  for  ever. 
I  said  this  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  at  the  time,  and 
he  gave  the  opinion  I  expressed  a  better  aooept* 
ance  than  he  had  acc<Mrded  to  the  previoufl  one 
in  February,  1837.  Parting  from  him  at  the 
end  of  the  session,  1838-'39, 1  said  to  him,  this 
bank  would  stop  before  we  meet  again ;  that  is 
to  say,  before  I  should  return  to  Congresfi.  It 
did  so,  and  for  ever.  At  meeting  him  the  easor 
mg  November,  he  was  the  first  to  remark  upon 
the  truth  of  these  predictions. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

PROPOSED  Ain^EXiLTION  OF  TEXAS :  MB.  PBES- 
TON'S  MOTION  AND  8PEE0H:  £XTBAar& 

The  republic  of  Texas  had  now  appUed  for  Ad- 
mission into  the  federal  Union,  as  one  of  its 
States.  Its  minister  at  Washington,  Memncin 
Hunt,  Esq.,  had  made  the  formal  implication  to 
our  executive  government.  That  was  one  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  annexation  removed.  It 
was  no  longer  an  insult  to  her  to  propose  to 
annex  her;  and  she  having  consented,  it  referred 
the  question  to  the  decision  of  the  United 
States.  But  there  was  still  another  objection, 
and  which  was  insuperable :  Texas  was  still  at 
war  with  Mexico ;  and  to  annex  her  was  to  an- 
nex the  war — a  consequence  which  morality 
and  policy  equally  rejected.  Mr.  Preston,  of 
South  Carolina^  brought  in  a  resolution  on  the 
subject— not  for  amiexation,  but  for  a  legislar 
tive  expression  in  fitvor  of  the  measure,  as  a 
basis  for  a  tripartite  treaty  between  the  United 
States,  Mexico  and  Texas;  so  as  to  effect  the 
annexation  by  the  consent  of  all  parties,  to 
avoid  all  cause  of  offence ;  and  unite  our  own 
legislative  with  the  executive  authority  in  ao- 
complishing  the  measure.  In  support  of  tbiB 
motion,  he  delivered  a  speech  whidi,  as  showing 
the  state  of  the  question  at  the  time,  and  pre- 
senting sound  views,  and  as  constituting  a  link 
in  the  history  of  the  Texas  annexation,  is  here 
introduced-HSome  extracts  to  exhibit  its  lead- 
ing ideas. 

"  The  proposition  which  I  now  submit  in  re- 
gard to  this  prosperous  and  self-dependent  State 
would  be  indecorous  and  presumptuous,  had  not 


ANNO  1888.    MABTIN  YAK  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


95 


the  lead  been  giyen  by  Texas  herself.  It  ap- 
pears by  the  corresponaenco  of  the  envoy  extra- 
ordinary  of  that  republio^with  our  own  govern- 
ment, that  the  <)uestion  of  annexation  on  certain 
terms  and  conditions  has  been  submitted  to  the 
people  of  the  republic^  and  dedded  in  the  affirm- 
ative by  a  very  large  majority ;  whereapon,  and 
in  pursuance  of  instructions  from  his  govern- 
ment, he  proposes  to  open  a  negotiation  for  the 
accomplishment  of  that  object  The  correspond- 
ence has  been  communicated  upon  a  call  from 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  thus  the 
proposition  becomes  a  fit  subject  for  the  delibe- 
ration of  Congress.  Nor  is  it  proposed  by  my 
resolution,  Mr.  President,  to  do  any  thing  which 
could  be  justly  construed  into  cause  of  offence 
by  Mexico.  The  terms  of  the  resolution  guard 
our  relations  with  that  republic;  and  the  spirit 
in  which  it  is  conceived  is  entirely  averse  to 
any  compromise  of  our  national  fiuth  and  honor, 
for  any  object,  of  whatever  magnitude.  More 
especially  would  I  have  our  intercourse  witii 
Mexico  characterized  by  fair  dealing  and  mode- 
ration^ on  account  of  her  unfortunate  condition, 
resultmg  from  a  longHX>ntinued  series  of  intes- 
tine dissensions,  which  all  who  have  not  been 
bom  to  liberty  must  inevitably  encounter  in 
seeking  fbr  it.  As  long,  therefore^  as  the  pre- 
tensions of  Mexico  are  attempted  to  be  asserted 
by  actual  force,  or  as  long  as  there  is  any  rea- 
sonable prospect  that  she  has  the  power  and  the 
will  to  resubjugate  Texas,  I  do  not  propose  to 
interfere.  My  own  delib^ate  conviction,  to  be 
sure,  i&  that  that  period  has  already  passed ; 
and  I  oeg  leave  to  say  that^  in  my  judgment, 
there  is  more  danger  of  an  mvasion  and  con- 
quest of  Mexico  by  Texas,  than  that  this  last 
will  ever  be  reannexed  to  Mexico. 

'*!  disavow,  Mr.  President,  all  hostile  pur- 
poses, or  even  ill  temper,  towards  Mexico ;  and 
1  trust  that  I  impugn  neither  the  policy  nor 
principles  of  the  administration.  I  therefore 
feel  myself  at  liberty  to  proceed  to  the  discus- 
sion cf  the  points  made  in  the  resolution,  en- 
tirely disembarrassed  of  any  preliminary  ob- 
stacle, unless,  indeed,  the  mode  by  which  so 
important  an  act  is  to  be  effected  may  be  con- 
sidered as  interposing  a  difficulty.  If  the  ob- 
ject itself  be  within  the  competency  of  this  gov- 
ernment, as  I  shall  hereafter  endeavor  to  show, 
and  both  parties  consent,  every  means  mutually 
agreed  upon  would  establish  a  joint  obligation. 
'Hie  acquisition  of  new  territory  has  heretofore 
been  effected  by  treaty,  and  this  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding in  regard  to  Texas  has  been  proposed 
by  her  minister;  but  I  believe  it  would  com- 
port more  with  the  importance  of  the  measure, 
that  both  branches  of  the  government  shoula 
concur,  the  legislature  expressing  a  previous 
opinion;  and,  this  being  done,  mL  difficulties, 
of  all  kinds  whatsoever,  real  or  imaginary, 
mi^t  be  avoided  by  a  treaty  tripartite  between 
Mexico,  Texas,  and  the  United  States^  in  which 
the  assent  and  Gonfirmati<m  of  Mexico  (for  a 


pecuniary  consideration,  if  you  choose)  might 
be  had,  without  infringing  the  acknowledged 
independence  and  fi'ee  agency  of  Texas. 

"  The  treaty,  Mr.  President,  of  1819,  was  a 
great  oversight  on  the  part  of  the  Soutliem 
States.  We  went  into  it  blindly,  I  must  say. 
The  great  importance  of  Florida,  to  which  the 
public  mind  was  strongly  awakened  at  that 
time  by  peculiar  drcumstances,  led  us  precip- 
itately into  a  measure  by  which  we  threw  a 
gem  away  that  would  have  boueht  ten  Flori- 
das.  Under  any  drcumstances,  Florida  would 
have  been  ours  m  a  short  time ;  but  our  impa- 
tience induced  us  to  purchase  it  by  a  territory 
ten  times  as  large — a  hundred  times  as  fertile, 
and  to  give  five  millions  of  dollars  into  the  bai^ 
gain.  Sir^  I  resign  myself  to  what  is  done ;  I 
acquiesce  m  the  inexorable  past ;  I  propose  no 
wild  and  chimerical  revolution  in  the  established 
order  of  things,  for  the  purpose  of  remedying 
what  I  conceive  to  have  been  wrong  originally. 
But  this  I  do  propose :  that  we  should  seize  the 
fkir  and  just  occasion  now  presented  to  remedy 
the  mistake  which  was  made  in  1819 ;  that  we 
should  repair  as  &r  as  we  can  the  evil  effect  of 
a  breach  of  the  constitution;  that  we  should 
re-establish  the  integrity  of  our  dismembered 
territory,  and  get  back  into  our  Union,  by  the 
just  and  honorable  means  providentially  offered 
to  us,  that  fiur  and  fertile  province  which,  in  an 
evil  hour,  we  severed  from  the  confedera(y. 

^  But  the  boundary  line  established  by  the 
treaty  of  1819  not  onl^  deprives  us  of  this  ex- 
tensive and  fertile  territory,  but  winds  with  "a 
deep  indent"  upon  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
itself  rtmnine  upon  the  Red  River  and  the  Ar- 
kansas. It  places  a  foreign  nation  in  the  rear 
of  our  Mississippi  settlements,  and  brmgs  it 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  that  great  outlet 
which  discharges  the  commerce  of  half  the 
Union.  The  mouth  of  the  Sabine  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  are  of  a  dangerous 
vidnity.  The  great  oqject  of  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  was  to  remove  all  possible  interfer- 
ence of  foreign  States  in  the  vast  commerce  of 
the  outiet  of  so  many  States.  By  the  cession 
of  Texas,  this  policy  was,  to  a  certain  extent^ 
compromised. 

^  The  committee,  it  appears  to  me,  has  been 
led  to  erroneous  condusions  on  this  subject  by 
a  frindamental  mistake  as  to  the  nature  and 
character  of  our  government ;  a  mistake  which 
has  pervaded  and  perverted  all  its  reasoning, 
and  has  for  a  long  time  been  the  abundant 
source  of  much  practical  mischief  in  the  action 
of  this  government,  and  of  very  dangerous  spec- 
ulation. The  mistaJke  lies  in  considering  this, 
as  to  its  nature  and  powers,  a  consolidated  gov- 
ernment of  one  people,  instead  of  a  confederated 
government  of  many  States.  There  is  no  one 
single  act  performed  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  under  the  constitution,  as  one  people. 
Even  m  the  popular  branch  of  Congress  this 
distinction  is  maintained.     A  certain  number 


96 


THIRTY'  YEABS*  viJCW. 


of  delegates  is  assigned  to  each  State,  and  the 
people  of  each  State  elect  for  their  own  State. 
When  the  fnnctionaries  of  the  government  as- 
semble here,  thej  have  no  soorce  of  power  but 
the  constitution,  which  prescribes^  defines,  and 
limits  their  action,  and  constitutes  them,  in 
their  aggregate  capacity,  a  trust  or  agency,  for 
the  performance  of  certain  duties  confided  to 
them  by  various  States  or  communities.  This 
government  is,  therefore,  a  confederacy  of  sov- 
ereign States,  associating  themselves  together 
for  mutual  advantages.  Thev  originally  came 
together  as  sovereign  States,  having  no  authori- 
ty and  pretending  to  no  power  of  reciprocal 
control.  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island 
stood  off  for  a  time,  refusing  to  join  the  con- 
federacy, and  at  length  came  into  it  by  the  ex- 
ercise or  a  sovereign  discretion.  So  too  of  Mis- 
souri, who  was  a  State  fully  organized  and  per- 
fect and  self-governed,  before  she  was  a  State 
of  tnis  Union ;  and,  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
this  has  been  the  case  with  all  the  States  here- 
tofore admitted,  and  must  always  continue  to 
be  so.  Where,  then,  is  the  difficulty  of  admit- 
ting another  state  into  this  confederacy  ?  The 
power  to  admit  new  States  is  expres^y  given. 
^  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress 
into  this  Union."  By  the  very  terms  of  the 
grant,  they  must  be  States  before  they  are  ad- 
mitted ;  when  admitted,  they  become  States  of 
the  Union,  The  terma,  restrictions,  and  prin- 
ciples upon  which  new  States  are  to  be  received, 
are  matters  to  be  regulated  by  Congress,  under 
the  constitution. 

^  Heretofore,  in  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana 
and  Florida,  fVance  and  Spain  both  stipulated 
that  the  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territories 
should  be  incorporated  in  the  Union  of  the 
United  States  as  soon  as  may  be  consistent 
with  the  principles  of  the  federal  constitution, 
and  admitted  to  all  the  privileges,  rights,  ana 
immunities  of  ^e  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
In  compliance  with  this  stipulation,  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  and  Missouri  have  been  admitted  into 
the  Union,  and  at  no  distant  day  Florida  will 
be.  Now,  if  we  contract  with  France  and  Spain 
for  the  admission  of  States,  why  shall  we  not 
with  Texas  ?  If  France  can  sell  to  us  her  sub- 
jects and  her  territory,  why  cannot  the  people 
of  Texas  give  theofielves  and  their  territory  to 
us  ?  Is  it  more  consistent  with  our  repubUcan 
notions  that  men  and  territory  can  bie  trans- 
ferred by  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  monarch,  for  a 
price,  than  that  a  tree  people  may  be  associated 
with  us  by  mutual  consent  ? 

'^  It  is  supposed  that  there  is  a  sort  of  politi- 
cal impossibility,  resulting  from  the  nature  of 
things,  to  efiect  the  propoisd  union.  The  com- 
mittee says  that  ^  the  measure  is  in  feet  the  un- 
ion of  two  independent  governments."  Cer^ 
tainly  the  imion  of  twenty-seven  ^^  independent 
governments;"  but  the  committee  adds^  that 
it  should  rather  be  termed  the  dissolution  of 
both,  and  the  formation  of  a  new  one,  which, 


whether  founded  on  the  same  or  another  writ- 
ten constitution,  is,  as  to  its  identity,  diflferent 
from  either.  This  can  only  be  effected  by  the 
summumjua,  &c 

'^  A  full  answer  to  this  objection,  even  if  numj 
others  were  not  at  hand,  as  fSeir  as  Texas  is  coo- 
cemed,  is  contained  in  the  fact  that  the  sum- 
mumjua  has  been  exercised. 

'^  fl!er  citizens,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  have  de- 
cided in  fevor  or  annexation ;  and,  according  to 
the  admission  of  the  committee,  this  is  suffi- 
ciently potent  to  dissolve  their  government,  and 
to  surrender  themselves  to  be  absorbed  by  oure. 
To  receive  this  augmentation  of  our  territoiy 
and  population,  manifestly  does  not  dissolve  this 
government)  or  even  remodel  it.  Its  identity  is 
not  disturbed.  There  is  no  appeal  necessary  to 
the  summum  juB  popidi  for  each  a  political  a^ 
rangement  on  our  part,  even  if  the  summum 
jus  populi  could  be  predicated  of  this  goTcnh 
ment,  which  it  cannot.  Now,  it  is  very  ob- 
vious that  two  free  States  may  associate  for 
common  purposes,  and  that  these  common  pm^ 
poses  may  be  multiplied  in  number  or  increased 
in  importance  at  the  discretion  of  the  parties. 
They  may  establish  a  common  agency  for  tlie 
transaction  of  their  business ;  and  this  may  in- 
clude a  portion  or  all  of  their  political  func- 
tions. The  new  creation  may  be  an  agency  if 
created  by  States,  or  a  government  if  created 
by  the  people  $  for  the  people  have  a  right  to 
abolish  and  create  governments.  Does  any  one 
doubt  whether  Texas  could  rejoin  the  republic 
of  Mexico?  Why  not)  then,  rejoin  thisrepub- 
Uc? 

'^  No  one  doubts  that  the  States  now  compos- 
ing this  Union  might  have  j'oined  Great  Britain 
after  the  declaration  of  mdependence.  The 
learned  committee  would  not  contend  that  there 
was  a  political  impossibilitv  in  the  union  of 
Scotbind  and  EnffUnd,  or  of  Ireland  and  Brit- 
ain ;  or  that,  in  ue  nature  of  things,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  Louisiana,  if  she  were  a  sot- 
ereign  State  out  of  this  Union,  to  join  with  the 
sovereign  State  of  Texas  in  forming  a  new  gov- 
ernment. 

"  There  is  no  point  of  view  in  which  the  prop- 
osition for  annexation  can  be  considered,  tiiat 
any  serious  obstacle  in  point  of  form  presents 
itself.  If  this  ^vemment  be  a  confederation 
of  States,  then  it  is  proposed  to  add  another 
State  to  the  confederacy.  If  this  government 
be  a  consolidation^  then  it  is  proposed  to  add  to 
it  additional  territory  and  population.  Tn** 
we  can  annex,  and  afterwards  admit,  the  cases 
of  Florida  and  Louisiana  prove.  We  can,  there- 
fore, deal  with  the  people  of  Texas  for  the  t^- 
ritory  of  Texas,  and  the  people  can  be  seciu^ 
in  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  constitution, 
as  were  the  subjects  of  Spain  and  France. 

"The  Massachusetts  legislature  experience 
much  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  mode  of  >|^ 
tion  by  which  the  proposed  annexation  can  be 
effected,  and  demand  "  in  what  form  would  ^ 


ANNO  18(8.    MABTIN  YAK  BUBKN,  PRESIDENT. 


97 


the  pnctical  exercise  of  the  suppoeed  power  ? 
In  what  department  does  it  lie?"  The  pro- 
gress of  events  already,  in  a  great  measure,  an- 
swers this  objection.  Texas  has  taken  the  ini- 
tiative. Her  minister  has  introduced  the  sub- 
ject to  that  department  which  is  alone  capable 
of  receiving  communications  from  foreign  gov- 
ernments, and  the  executive  has  submitted  the 
correspondence  to  Congress.  The  resolutions 
before  70U  propose  an  expression  of  opinion  by 
Congress,  which,  if  made,  the  executive  wiU 
doubtless  address  itself  earnestly,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  authorities  of  Texas,  to  the  con- 
Rummation  of  the  joint  wishes  of  the  parties, 
which  can  be  accomplished  by  treaty,  emanat- 
ing from  one  department  of  this  government,  to 
be  carried  into  effect  by  the  passage  of  all  need- 
ful laws  by  the  legislative  department  and  by 
the  exercise  of  the  express  power  of  Uongress 
to  admit  new  States." 

The  proposition  of  Mr.  Preston  did  not  pre- 
vail ;  the  period  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  had 
not  yet  arrived.  War  still  existing  between 
Mexico  and  Texas — ^the  statits  of  the  two  coun- 
tries being  that  of  war,  although  hostilities 
hardly  existed — a  majority  of  the  Senate  deem- 
ed it  unadvisable  even  to  take  the  preliminary 
steps  towards  annexation  which  his  resolution 
proposed.  A  motion  to  lay  the  proposition  on 
the  table  prevailed,  by  a  vote  of  24  to  14. 


CHAPTEE    XXV. 

DEBATE  BETWEEN  MB.  CLAT  AND  MB.  CAL- 
HOUN, PEBSONAL  AND  POLITIGAL,  AND  LEAD- 
ING TO  EXPOSITIONS  AND  YINDIOATIONB  OF 
PUBLIC  CONDUCT  WHICH  BELONG  TO  HISTO- 
BY. 

For  seven  years  past  Mr.  Calhoun,  while  dis- 
claiming connection  with  any  party,  had  acted 
on  leading  measures  with  the  opposition,  head- 
ed by  Messrs.  Clay  and  Webster.  Still  dis- 
claiuung  any  such  connection,  he  was  found  at 
the  extra  session  co-operating  with  the  admin- 
istration. His  co-operation  with  the  opposition 
had  given  it  the  victory  in  many  eventful  con* 
tests  in  that  long  period ;  his  co-operation  with 
the  Van  Buren  administration  mig^t  turn  the 
tide  of  victory.  The  loss  or  gain  of  a  chief 
who,  in  a  nearly  balanced  state  of  parties,  could 
carry  victory  to  the  side  which  he  espoused, 
was  an  event  not  to  be  viewed  without  vexation 

Vol.  II.— 7 


by  the  party  which  he  left.  Resentment  was 
as  natural  on  one  side  as  gratification  was  on 
the  other.  The  democratic  party  had  made  no 
reproaches— (I  speak  of  the  debates  in  Con- 
gress)— when  Mr.  Calhoun  left  them ;  they  de- 
bated questions  with  him  as  if  there  had  been 
no  cause  for  personal  complaint.  Not  so  with 
the  opposition  now  when  the  course  of  his  tran- 
sit was  reversed,  and  the  same  event  occurred 
to  themselves.  They  took  deeply  to  heart  this 
withdrawal  of  one  of  their  leaders,  and  his  ^h 
pearance  on  the  other  side.  It  created  %  feel- 
ing of  personal  resentment  agvnst  Mr.  Calhoun 
which  had  manifested  itself  in  several  small 
side-blows  at  the  extra  session ;  and  it  broke 
out  into  systematic  attack  at  the  regular  one. 
Some  sharp  passages  took  place  between  himself 
and  Mr.  Webster,  but  not  of  a  kind  to  lead  to 
any  thing  historicaL  He  (Mr.  Webster)  was  but 
slightly  inclined  towards  that  kind  of  speaking 
which  mingles  personality  with  argument,  and 
lessens  the  weight  of  the  adversary  argument 
by  reducing  the  weight  of  the  speaker's  char- 
acter. Mr.  Clay  had  a  turn  that  way ;  and,  cer- 
tainly, a  great  ability  for  it.  Invective,  mingled 
with  sarcasm,  was  one  of  the  phases  of  his  ora- 
tory. He  was  supreme  at  a  philippic  (taken  in 
the  sense  o£  Demosthenes  and  Cicero),  where  the 
political  attack  on  a  public  man's  measure  was 
to  be  enforced  and  heightened  by  a  personal 
attack  on  his  conduct  He  owed  much  of  his 
fascinating  power  ovef  his  hearers  to  the  exer- 
cise of  this  talent — ^always  so  captivating  in  a 
popular  assembly,  and  in  the  galleries  of  the 
Senate ;  not  so  much  so  in  the  Senate  itself; 
and  to  him  it  naturally  fell  to  become  the  organ 
of  the  feelings  of  his  party  towards  Mr.  Cal- 
houn. And  very  cordially,  and  carefully,  and 
amply,  did  he  make  preparation  for  it. 

The  storm  had  been  gathering  since  Septem- 
ber :  it  burst  in  February.  It  had  been  evi- 
dently waiting  for  an  occasion :  and  found  it  in 
the  first  speech  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  that  session, 
in  fevor  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  recommendation  fer 
an  independent  treasury  and  a  federal  hard- 
money  currency.  This  speech  was  delivered  the 
15th  of  February,  and  was  strictly  aigumenta- 
tive  and  parliamentary,  and  wholly  confined  to 
its  subject  Four  days  thereafter  Mr.  Clay  an- 
swered it ;  and  although  ready  at  an  extempo- 
raneous speech,  he  had  the  merit,  when  time  per- 
mitted, of  considering  well  both  the  matter  and 


98 


THIRTY  TEAKS'  VIEW. 


the  words  of  what  he  intended  to  deliver.  On 
this  occasion  he  had  had  ample  time ;  for  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Galhonn  could  not  be  essentially 
different  from  the  one  he  delivered  on  the  same 
subject  at  the  extra  session  ;  and  the  personal 
act  which  excited  his  resentment  was  of  the 
same  date.  There  had  been  six  months  for  pre- 
paration ;  and  fully  had  preparation  been  made. 
The  whole  speech  bore  the  impress  of  careful 
elaboration,  and  especially  the  last  part ;  for  it 
consisted  of  two  distinct  parts — the  first,  argu- 
mentative, and  addressed  to  the  measure  before 
the  Senate :  and  was  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name, 
a  reply.  The  second  part  was  an  attack,  under 
the  name  of  a  reply,  and  was  addressed  to  the 
personal  conduct  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  reproaching 
him  with  his  desertion  (as  it  was  called),  and 
taunting  him  with  the  company  he  had  got 
into — ^taking  care  to  remind  him  of  his  own 
former  sad  account  of  that  company :  and  then, 
launching  into  a  wider  field,  he  threw  up  to 
him  all  the  imputed  political  delinquencies  of 
his  life  for  near  twenty  years — skipping  none 
from  1816  down  to  the  extra  session ; — al- 
though he  himself  had  been  in  close  political 
fiiendship  with  this  alleged  delinquent  during 
the  greater  part  of  that  long  time.  Mr.  Calhoun 
saw  at  once  the  advantage  which  this  general 
and  sweeping  assault  put  into  his  hands.  Had 
the  attack  been  confined  to  the  mere  circum- 
stance of  quitting  one  side  and  joining  the  other, 
it  might  have  been  treated  as  a  mere  personali- 
ty ;  and,  either  left  unnoticed,  or  the  account 
settled  at  once  with  some  ready  words  of  retort 
and  justification.  But  in  going  beyond  the  act 
which  gave  the  offence — ^beyond  the  cause  of  re- 
sentment, which  was  recent,  and  arraigning  a 
member  on  the  events  of  almost  a  quarter  of  a 
century  of  public  life,  he  went  beyond  the  lim- 
its of  the  occasion,  and  gave  Mr.  Calhoun  the 
opportunity  of  explaining,  or  justifying,  or  ex- 
cusing all  that  had  ever  been  objected  to  him ; 
and  tiiat  with  the  sympathy  in  the  audience 
with  which  attack  for  ever  invests  the  rights 
of  defence.  He  saw  his  advantage,  and  availed 
himself  of  it  Though  prompt  at  a  reply,  he 
ehoee  to  make  none  in  a  hurry.  A  pause  en- 
sued Mr.  Clay's  conclusion,  every  one  deferring 
to  Mr.  Calhoun's  right  of  reply.  He  took  the 
floor,  but  it  was  only  to  say  that  he  would  re- 
ply at  his  leisure  to  the  senator  firom  Ken- 
tacky. 


He  did  reply,  and  at  his  own  good  time,  which 
was  at  the  end  of  twenty  days ;  and  in  a  way 
to  show  that  he  had  ^  smelt  the  lamp,"  not  of 
Demades,  but  of  Demosthenes,  during  that  time. 
It  was  profoundly  meditated .  and  elaborately 
composed  :  the  matter  solid  and  condensed ; 
the  style  chaste,  terse  and  vigorous ;  the  nam- 
tive  clear;  the  logic  close ;  the  sarcasm  cattisg : 
and  every  word  bearing  upon  the  object  in  view. 
It  was  a  masterly  oration,  and  like  Mr.  Clay's 
speech,  divided  into  two  parts ;  but  the  secoDd 
part  only  seemed  to  occupy  his  feelings,  ud 
bring  forth  words  from  the  heart  as  well  as  from 
the  head.  And  well  it  might !  He  was  speak- 
ing, not  for  life,  but  for  character  !  and  defend- 
ing public  character,  in  the  conduct  which  makes 
it)  and  on  high  points  of  policy,  which  belonged 
to  history — defending  it  before  posterity  and  the 
present  age,  impersonated  in  the  American  Sen- 
ate, before  whidi  he  stood,  and  to  whom  he  ap- 
pealed as  judges  while  invoking  as  witnesses. 
He  had  a  high  occasion,  and  he  felt  it;  a  high 
tribunal  to  plead  before,  and  he  rejoiced  in  it; 
a  high  accuser,  and  he  defied  him ;  a  high  stake 
to  contend  for,  his  own  reputation :  andmanfiil- 
ly,  earnestly,  and  powerfully  did  he  defend  it 
He  had  a  high  example  both  in  oratory,  and  in 
the  analogies  of  the  occasion,  before  him;  and 
well  had  he  looked  into  that  example.  I  hap- 
pened to  know  that  in  this  time  he  refreshed 
his  reading  of  the  Oration  on  the  Crown  j  and 
as  the  delivery  of  his  speech  showed,  not  with- 
out profit  Besides  its  general  cast,  which  vas 
a  good  imitation,  there  were  passages  of  a  ^ 
and  terseness— of  a  power  and  simplicitr" 
which  would  recall  the  recollection  of  that  mas- 
terpiece of  the  oratory  of  the  world  Thcff 
were  points  of  analogy  in  the  cases  as  well  as  is 
the  speeches^  each  case  being  that  of  one  eDtt- 
nent  statesman  accusing  another,  and  before  a 
national  tribunal,  and  upon  the  events  of  a  poh- 
lie  life.  More  happy  than  the  Athenian  orator, 
the  American  statesman  had  no  foul  imputatioDB 
to  repel.  Different  from  iEschines  and  Pcmofi- 
thenes,  both  himself  and  Mr.  Clay  stood  above 
the  imputation  of  corrupt  action  or  motive, 
they  had  faults,  and  what  public  man  is  without 
them  ?  they  were  the  faults  of  lofty  nature*' 
not  of  sordid  souls;  and  they  looked  to  tw 
honors  of  their  country— not  its  plunder-'*'^ 
their  fiair  reward. 

When  Mr.  Calhonn  finished,  Mr.  Clay  '^ 


ANNO  18S8.    MARTIK  VAN  BURBN,  FKESIDSNX 


99 


stantly  arose,  and  rejoined — his  rejoinder  almost 
entirely  directed  to  the  personal  part  of  the  dis- 
cnssion,  which  from  its  beginning  had  been  the 
absorbing  part  Much  stung  by  Mr.  Calhoun's 
reply,  who  used  the  sword  as  well  as  the  buck- 
ler, and  with  a  keen  edge  upon  it^  he  was  more 
animated  and  sarcastic  in  the  rejoinder  than  in 
the  first  attack.  Mr.  Calhoun  also  rejoined  in- 
stantly. A  succession  of  brief  and  rapid  re- 
joinders took  place  between  them  (chiefly  omit- 
ted in  this  work),  which  seemed  running  to  in- 
finity, when  Mr.  Calhoun,  satisfied  with  what 
he  had  done,  pleasantly  put  an  and  to  it  by  say- 
ing, he  saw  the  senator  from  Kentucky  was  de- 
termined to  have  the  last  word ;  and  he  would 
yield  it  to  him.  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  same  spirit, 
disclaimed  that  desire ;  and  said  no  more.  And 
thus  the  exciting  debate  terminated  with  more 
courtesy  than  that  with  which  it  had  been  con- 
ducted. 

In  all  contests  of  this  kind  there  is  a  feeling 
of  violated  decorum  which  makes  each  party 
solicitous  to  appear  on  the  defensiYe,  and  for 
that  purpose  to  throw  the  blame  of  commencing 
on  the  opposite  side.  Eyen  the  one  that  pal- 
pably throws  the  first  stone  is  yet  anxious  to 
show  that  it  was  a  defensive  throw ;  or  at  least 
provoked  by  previous  wrong.  Mr.  Clay  had 
this  feeling  upon  him,  and  knew  that  the  onus 
of  making  out  a  defensive  case  fell  upon  him ; 
and  he  lost  no  time  in  endeavoring  to  establish 
it.  He  placed  his  defence  in  the  forepart  of  the 
attack.  At  the  very  outset  of  the  personal  part 
of  his  speech  he  attended  to  this  essential  pre- 
liminary, and  found  the  justification,  as  he  be- 
lieved, in  some  expressions  of  Mr.  Calhoun  in 
his  sub-treasury  speech;  and  in  a  couple  of 
passages  in  a  letter  he  had  written  on  a  public 
oceasion,  after  his  return  from  the  extra  session 
—commonly  called  the  Edgefield  letter.  In  the 
speech  he  believed  he  found  a  reproach  upon 
the  patriotism  of  himself  and  firiends  in  not  fol- 
lowing his  (Mr.  Calhoun's)  "  lead  "  in  support 
of  the  administration  financial  and  currency 
measures;  and  in  the  letter,  an  impeachment 
of  the  integrity  and  patriotism  of  himself  and 
■  firiends  if  they  got  into  power ;  and  also  an 
avowal  that  his  change  of  sides  was  for  selfish 
considerations.  The  first  reproach,  that  of  lack 
of  patriotism  in  not  following  Mr.  Calhoun's 
lead,  he  found  it  hard  to  locate  in  any  definite 
part  of  the  speedi;  and  had  to  rest  it  upon  gene- 


ral expressions.  The  others,  those  founded 
upon  passages  in  the  letter,  were  definitely 
quoted ;  and  were  in  these  terms :  "  /  cotdd 
not  back  and  sustain  those  in  such  opposition 
in  whose  itisdom,  firmness  and  patriotism  I 
had  no  reason  to  confide  J! — ^jft  was  clear, 
with  our  joint  forces  (whigs  and  nulHfiers\ 
we  could  utterly  overthrow  and  demolish 
them ;  hut  it  was  not  less  clear  that  the  rtc- 
tory  would  enure,  not  to  us^  but  exclusively  to 
the  benefit  of  our  allies,  and  their  cause?^ 
These  passages  were  much  commented  upon, 
especially  in  the  rejoinders ;  and  the  whole  let- 
ter produced  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  the  meaning 
claimed  for  them  fully  stated  by  him. 

In  the  speeches  for  and  against  the  crown  we 
see  Demosthenes  answering  what  has  not  been 
found  in  the  speech  of  Eschines:  the  same 
anomaly  took  place  in  this  earnest  debate,  as 
reported  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun. 
The  latter  answers  much  which  is  not  found  in 
the  published  speech  to  which  he  is  replying. 
It  gave  rise  to  some  remark  tMetween  the 
speakers  during  the  rejoinders.  Mr.  Calhoun 
said  he  was  replying  to  the  speech  as  spoken. 
Mr.  Clay  said  it  was  printed  under  his  super- 
vision— as  much  as  to  say  he  sanctioned  the 
omissions.  The  fact  is,  that  with  a  commend- 
able feeling,  he  had  softened  some  parts,  and 
omitted  others ;  for  that  which  is  severe  enough 
in  speaking,  becomes  more  so  in  writing ;  and 
its  omission  or  softening  is  a  tacit  retraction, 
and  honorable  to  the  cool  reflection  which  con- 
demns what  passion,  or  heat,  had  prompted. 
But  Mr.  Calhoun  did  not  accept  the  favor:  and, 
neither  party  desiring  quarter,  the  one  answer- 
ed what  had  been  dropt,  and  the  other  re-pro- 
duced it,  with  interest.  In  his  rejoinders,  Mr. 
Clay  supplied  all  that  had  been  omitted — and 
made  additions  to  it 

This  contest  between  two  eminent  men,  on  a 
theatre  so  elevated,  in  which  the  stake  to  each 
was  so  great,  and  in  which  each  did  his  best, 
conscious  that  the  eye  of  the  age  and  of  posterity 
was  upon  him,  was  an  event  in  itself,  and  in 
their  lives.  It  abounded  with  exemplifications 
of  all  the  different  sorts  of  oratory  of  which 
each  was  master:  on  one  side — declamation, 
impassioned  eloquence,  vehement  invective, 
taunting  sarcasm :  on  the  other — dose  reason- 
ing, chaste  narrative,  clear  statement,  keen  re- 
tort  Two  aooeesorieB  of  such  contests  (disrup- 


100 


THntry  tjears'  view. 


tions  of  friendships),  were  missing,  and  wdl — 
the  pathetic  and  the  yirulent.  There  was  no 
crying,  or  hlackguarding  in  it — nothing  like  the 
weeping  scene  between  Fox  and  Burke,  when 
the  heart  overflowed  with  tenderness  at  the  re- 
collection of  former  love,  now  gone  foreyer ;  nor 
like  the  yirulent  one  when  the  gall,  overflowing 
with  bitterness,  warned  an  ancient  friend  never 
to  return  as  a  spy  to  the  camp  which  he  had 
left  as  a  deserter. 

There  were  in  the  speeches  of  each  some  re- 
markable passages,  such  only  as  actors  in  the 
scenes  could  furnish,  and  which  history  will 
daim.  Thus :  Mr.  Clay  gave  some  inside  vievro 
of  the  concoction  of  the  &mous  compromise  act 
of  1833 ;  which,  so  far  as  they  go,  correspond 
with  the  secret  history  of  the  same  concoction 
as  given  in  one  of  the  chapters  on  that  subject 
in  the  first  volume  of  this  work.  Mr.  Clay's 
speech  is  also  remarkable  for  the  declaration 
that  the  protective  system,  which  he  so  long 
advocated,  was  never  intended  to  be  permanent : 
that  its  only  design  was  to  give  temporary  en- 
couragement to  infimt  manufactures :  and  that  it 
had  fulfilled  its  mission.  Mr.  Calhoun's  speech 
was  also  remarkable  for  admitting  the  power, 
and  the  expediency  of  incidental  protection,  as 
it  was  called;  and  on  this  ground  he  justified 
his  support  of  the  tariff  of  1816— so  much  ob- 
jected against  him.  He  also  gave  his  history  of 
the  compromise  of  1833,  attributing  it  to  the  effi- 
cacy of  nullification  and  of  the  military  attitude 
of  South  Carolina:  which  brought  upon  him  the 
relentless  sarcasm  of  Mr.  Clay;  and  occasioned 
his  explanation  of  his  support  of  a  national 
bank  in  1816.  He  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee which  reported  the  charter  for  that  bank, 
and  gave  it  the  support  which  carried  it  through ; 
with  which  he  was  reproached  after  he  became 
opposed  to  the  bank.  He  explained  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  he  gave  that  support — 
such  as  I  had  often  heard  him  state  in  con- 
versation ;  and  which  always  appeared  to  me  to 
be  sufficient  to  exempt  him  from  reproach.  At 
the  same  time  (and  what  is  but  little  known), 
he  had  the  merit  of  opposmg,  and  probably  of 
defeating,  a  fiur  more  dangerous  bank — one  of 
fifty  millions  (equivalent  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions  now),  and  founded  almost 
whoUy  upon  United  States  stocks— imposingly 
recommended  to  Congress  by  the  then  secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Alexander  J.  Dallas.    The 


analytical  mind  of  Mr.  CaU&oun,  then  one  of  the 
youngest  members,  immediately  solved  this 
monster  proposition  into  its  constituent  ele- 
ments; and  his  power  of  generalization  and 
condensation,  enabled  him  to  express  its  char- 
acter in  two  words — lending  our  credit  to  the 
bank  far  nothing,  and  borrowing  it  back  at 
six  per  cent,  interest.  As  an  alternative,  and 
not  as  a  choice,  he  supported  the  national  bank 
that  was  chartered,  after  twice  defeating  the 
monster  bank  of  fifty  millions  founded  on  paper ; 
for  that  monster  was  twice  presented  to  Con- 
gress, and  tvnce  repulsed.  The  last  imte  it 
came  as  a  currency  measure — as  a  bank  to 
create  a  national  currency ;  and  as  such  was  re- 
ferred to  a  select  committee  on  national  cur- 
rency, of  which  Mr.  Calhoun  was  chairman. 
He  opposed  it,  and  fell  into  the  support  of  the 
bank  which  was  chartered.  Strange  that  in 
this  search  for  a  national  bank,  the  currency  of 
the  constitution  seemed  to  enter  no  one's  head. 
The  revival  of  the  gold  currency  was  never  sug- 
gested; and  in  that  oblivion  of  gold,  and  still 
hunting  a  substitute  in  paper,  the  men  who  put 
down  the  first  national  bank  did  their  work 
much  less  effectually  that  those  who  put  dovm 
the  second  one. 

The  speech  of  each  of  these  senators,  so  fikr  as 
they  constitute  the  personal  part  of  the  debate, 
will  be  given  in  a  chapter  of  its  own :  the  re- 
joinders being  brie^  prompt,  and  responsive 
each  to  the  other,  will  be  put  together  in 
another  chapter.  The  speeches  of  each,  having 
been  carefully  prepared  and  elaborated,  may  be 
considered  as  fair  specimens  of  their  speaking 
powers — ^the  style  of  each  different,  but  each  a 
first  class  speaker  in  the  branch  of  oratory  to 
which  he  belonged.  They  may  be  read  with 
profit  by  those  who  would  wish  to  form  an  idea 
of  the  style  and  power  of  these  eminent  orators. 
Manner,  and  all  that  is  comprehended  under  the 
head  of  delivery,  is  a  different  attribute;  and 
there  Mr.  Clay  had  an  advantage,  which  is  lost 
in  transferring  the  speech  to  paper.  Some  of 
Mr.  Calhoun's  characteristics  of  manner  may  be 
seen  in  these  speeches.  He  eschewed  the  stud- 
ied exordiums  and  perorations,  once  so  much  in 
vogue,  and  which  the  rhetorician's  rules*  teach 
how  to  make.  A  few  simple  words  to  an- 
nounce the  beginning,  and  the  same  to  show 
the  ending  of  his  speech,  was  about  as  much  as 
he  did  in  that  way ;  and  in  that  departure  finom 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUKEN,  FRB3IDENT. 


101 


custom  he  oonformed  to  what  wu  becoming  in 
a  business  speech,  as  his  generally  were ;  and 
also  to  what  was  suitable  to  his  own  intellectual 
style  of  speaking.  He  also  eschewed  the  trite, 
familiar,  and  unparliamentary  mode  (which  of 
late  has  got  into  yogue)  of  referring  to  a  senar 
tor  as,  "  my  friend,"  or,  "  the  distinguished,"  or, 
"  the  eloquent)"  or,  "  the  honorable,"  Ac  He 
followed  the  written  rule  of  parliamentary  law; 
which  is  also  the  dear  rule  of  propriety,  and 
referred  to  the  member  by  his  sitting-place  in 
the  Senate,  and  the  State  from  which  he  came. 
Thus :  "  the  senator  from  Kentucky  who  sits 
farthest  from  me ; "  which  was  a  sufficient  desig- 
nation to  those  present)  while  for  the  absent, 
and  for  posterity  the  name  (Mr.  Clay)  would 
be  put  in  brackets.  He  also  addressed  the  body 
by  the  simple  collective  phrase,  "senators;" 
and  this  was,  not  accident,  or  &ncy,  but  system, 
resulting  from  convictions  of  propriety ;  and  he 
would  allow  no  reporter  to  alter  it 

Mr.  Calhoun  laid  great  stress  upon  his 
speech  in  this  debate,  as  being  the  vindica- 
tion of  his  public  life;  and  declared,  in  one  of  his 
replies  to  Mr.  Clay,  that  he  rested  his  public 
character  upon  it,  and  desired  it  to  be  read  by 
those  who  would  do  him  justice.  In  justice  to 
him,  and  as  being  a  vindication  olf  several  meas- 
ures of  his  mentioned  in  this  work,  not  approv- 
ingly, a  place  is  here  given  to  it. 

This  discussion  between  two  eminent  men, 
growing  out  of  support  and  opposition  to  the 
leading  measures  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  adminis- 
tration, indissolubly  connects  itself  with  the 
passage  of  those  measures ;  and  gives  additional 
emphasis  and  distinction  to  the  era  of  the 
crowning  policy  which  separated  bank  and 
state — made  the  government  the  keeper  of  its 
own  money — repulsed  paper  money  from  the 
federal  treasury — ^filled  the  treasury  to  bursting 
with  solid  gold ;  and  did  more  for  the  prosperi- 
ty of  the  country  than  any  set  of  measures  from 
the  foundation  of  the  government. 


CHAPTEE    XXVI. 

DEBATE    BETWEEN    MB.    GLAT    AND    MB.   CAL- 
HOUN :  MB.  CLAY'S  SPEECH :  EXTBAGT8. 

"  Who,  Mr.  President,  are  the  most  conspicu- 
ous of  those  who  perseveringly  pressed  this 
bill  upon  Congress  and  the  American  people  ? 
Its  drawer  is  the  distinguished  gentleman  in  . 
the  white  house  not  far  off  ^Mr.  Yam  Burkm)  ; 
its  indorser  is  the  distinguished  senator  from 
South  Carolina,  here  present  What  the  draw- 
er thinks  of  the  indoraer,  his  cautious  reserve 
and  st^ed  enmity  prevent  us  from  knowing. 
But  the  frankness  of  the  indorser  has  not  left 
us  in  the  same  ignorance  with  respect  to  his 
opinion  of  the  drawer.  He  has  often  expressed 
it  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  On  an  occasion 
not  very  distant,  denying  him  any  of  the  noble 
qualities  of  the  royal  b^t  of  the  forest,  he  at- 
tributed to  him  those  which  belong  to  the  most 
crafty,  most  skulking,  and  the  meanest  of  the 
quadruped  tribe.  Mr.  President,  it  is  due  to 
myself  to  say,  that  I  do  not  altogether  share 
with  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  in  this 
opinion  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
I  have  always  found  him,  in  his  manners  and 
deportment)  civil,  courteous,  and  gentlemanly ; 
and  he  dispenses,  in  the  noble  mansion  which 
he  now  occupies,  one  worthy  the  residence  of 
the  chief  magistrate  of  a  great  people,  a  gener- 
ous and  liberal  hospitality.  An  acquaintance 
with  him  of  more  than  twenty  years'  duration 
has  inspired  me  with  a  respect  for  the  man, 
although,  I  regret  to  be  compelled  to  say,  I  de- 
test the  magistrate. 

"  The  eloquent  senator  from  South  Carolina 
has  intimated  that  the  course  of  my  friends  and 
myself,  in  opposing  this  bill,  was  unpatriotic, 
and  that  we  ought  to  have  followed  in  bis  lead ; 
and,  in  a  late  letter  of  his,  he  has  spoken  of  his 
alliance  with  us»  and  of  his  motives  for  quitting 
it.  I  cannot  admit  the  justice  of  his  reproach. 
We  united,  if,  indeed,  there  were  any  alliance  in 
the  case,  to  restrain  the  enormous  expansion  of 
executive  power ;  to  arrest  the  progress  of  cor- 
ruption; to  rebuke  usurpation;  and  to  drive 
the  Goths  and  Vandals  m>m  the  capital ;  to  ex- 
pel Brennus  and  his  horde  from  Kome,  who, 
when  he  threw  his  sword  into  the  scale,  to  aug- 
ment the  ransom  demanded  from  the  mistress 
of  the  world,  showed  his  preference  for  gold ; 
that  he  was  a  hard-money  chieftain.  It  was 
by  the  much  more  valuable  metal  of  iron  that 
he  was  driven  from  her  gates.  And  how-  often 
have  we  witnessed  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina,  with  woful  countenance,  and  in  dole- 
ful strains,  pouring  forth  touching  and  mourn- 
ful eloquence  on  the  degeneracy  of  the  times, 
and  the  downward  tenc^ncy  of  the  republic  ? 
Day  after  day,  in  the  Senate,  have  we  seen  the 


102 


THIRTY  TEARS'  VIEW. 


displayB  of  his  loftj  and  impassioned  eloquence. 
Although  I  shared  largely  with  the  senator  in 
his  apprehension  for  the  purity  of  our  institu- 
tions, and  the  permanency  of  our  civil  liberty, 
disposed  always  to  look  at  the  brighter  side  of 
human  affairs.  I  was  sometimes  inclined  to  hope 
that  the  yrria  imagination  of  the  senator  had 
depicted  the  dangers  by  which  we  were  encom- 
passed in  somewhat  stronger  colors  than  they 
justified. 

"  The  arduous  contest  in  which  we  were  so 
long  engaged  was  about  to  terminate  in  a  glori- 
ous victory.  The  very  object  for  which  the 
alliance  was  formed  was  about  to  be  accom- 
plished. At  this  critical  moment  the  senator 
left  us ;  he  left  us  for  the  very  purpose  of  pre- 
yenting  the  success  of  the  common  cause.  He 
took  up  his  musket,  knapsack,  and  shot-pouch, 
and  joined  the  other  party.  He  went,  horse, 
foot,  and  dragoon ;  and  he  himself  composed  the 
whole  corps.  He  went,  as  his  present  most 
distinguished  ally  commenced  with  his  expung- 
ing resolution,  BotUary  and  cdone.  The  earliest 
instance  recorded  in  history,  within  my  recol- 
lection, of  an  ally  drawing  off  his  forces  from 
Uie  combined  army,  was  that  of  Achilles  at  the 
siege  of  Troy.  He  withdrew,  with  all  his 
troops,  and  remained  in  the  neighborhood,  in 
sullen  and  dignified  inactiyity.  But  he  did  not 
join  the  Trojan  forces;  and  when,  during  the 
progress  of  the  siege,  his  faithfbl  friend  fell  in 
battle,  he  raised  his  ayenging  arm,  droye  the 
Trojans  back  into  the  gates  of  Troy,  and  sati- 
ated his  yengeance  by  slaying  Priam's  noblest 
and  dearest  son,  the  finest  hero  in  the  immortal 
Iliad.  But  Achilles  had  been  wronged  or 
imagined  himself  wronged,  in  the  person  of  the 
fiur  and  beautiful  Briseis.  We  did  no  wrong 
to  the  distinguished  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina. On  the  contrary,  we  respected  him,  con- 
fided in  his  great  and  acknowledged  ability,  his 
uncommon  genius,  his  extensiye  experience,  his 
supposed  patriotism ;  above  all,  we  confided  in 
hifi  stem  and  inflexible  fidelity.  Nevertheless, 
he  left  us,  and  joined  our  common  opponents, 
distrusting  and  distrusted.  He  left  us,  as  he 
tells  us  in  the  Edgefield  letter,  because  the  vic- 
tory which  our  common  arms  were  about  to 
achieve,  vras  not  to  enure  to  him  and  his  party. 
but  exclusively  to  the  benefit  of  his  allies  ana 
their  cause.  I  thought  that,  actuated  by  patri- 
otism (that  noblest  of  human  virtues),  we  had 
been  contending  together  for  our  common  coun- 
try, for  her  violated  rights,  her  threatened  liber- 
ties, her  prostrate  constitution.  Never  did  I 
suppose  that  personal  or  party  considerations 
entered  into  our  views.  Whether,  if  victory 
shall  ever  again  be  about  to  perch  upon  the 
standard  of  the  spoils  party  ^the  denomination 
which  the  senator  from  Soutn  Carolina  has  so 
often  given  to  his  present  allies),  he  vrill  not 
feel  himself  constrained,  by  the  principles  on 
which  he  has  acted,  to  leave  them,  because  it 
may  not  enure  to  the  benefit  of  himself  and  his 


party,  I  leave  to  be  adjusted  between  them- 
selves. 

"The  speech  of  the  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina was  plausible,  ingenious,  absfHct,  meta- 
physical, and  generalizing.  It  did  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  adapted  to  the  bosoms  and  business 
of  hunuin  life.  It  was  aerial,  and  not  very  high 
up  in  the  air,  Mr.  President,  either — ^not  quite 
as  hi^h  as  Mr.  Clayton  was  in  his  last  ascension 
in  his  balloon.  The  senator  announce  that 
there  was  a  single  alternative,  and  no  escape 
from  one  or  the  other  branch  of  it.  He  stated 
that  we  must  take  the  bill  under  consideratioo, 
or  the  substitute  proposed  by  the  senator  from 
Virginia.  I  do  not  concur  in  that  statement  of 
the  case.  There  is  another  course  embraced  in 
neither  branch  of  the  senator's  alternative; 
and  that  course  is  to  do  nothing, — always  the 
wisest  when  you  are  not  certain  what  you  ought 
to  do.  Let  us  suppose  that  neither  oranch  of 
the  alternative  is  accepted,  and  that  nothing  is 
done.  What,  then,  would  be  the  consequence? 
There  would  oe  a  restoration  of  the  law  of  1789, 
with  all  its  cautious  provisions  and  securities, 
provided  by  the  vrisdom  of  our  ancestors,  which 
has  been  so  trampled  upon  by  the  late  and 
{present  administrations.  By  that  law,  estab- 
Dshing  the  Treasury  department^  the  treasure 
of  the  United  States  is  to  be  received,  kept,  and 
disbursed  by  the  treasurer,  under  a  bond  with 
ample  security,  under  a  large  penalty  fixed  by 
law,  and  not  left,  as  this  bill  leayes  it,  to  the 
uncertain  discretion  of  a  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. I^  therefore,  we  were  to  do  nothing,  that 
law  would  be  revived;  the  treasurer  would 
have  the  custody,  as  he  ought  to  have,  of  the 
public  money,  and  doubtless  he  would  maJce 
special  deposits  of  it  in  all  instances  with  safe 
and  sound  State  banks;  as  in  some  cases  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  now  obliged  to  do. 
Thus,  we  should  have  in  operation  that  very 
special  deposit  system,  so  much  desired  by  some 
gentlemen,  by  which  the  public  money  would 
remain  separate  and  unmixed  with  the  money 
of  banks. 

"  There  is  yet  another  course,  unembraced  by 
either  branch  of  the  alternative  presented  by 
the  senator  from  South  Carolina ;  and  that  is, 
to  establish  a  bank  of  the  United  Sutes,  consti- 
tuted according  to  the  old  and  approved  method 
of  forming  such  an  institution,  tested  and  san(^ 
tioned  by  experience;  a  bank  of  the  United 
States  which  should  blend  public  and  private 
interests,  and  be  subject  to  public  and  prirata 
control  J  united  together  in  such  manner  as  to 
present  safe  and  salutary  checks  against  all 
abuses.  The  senator  mistakes  his  own  aban- 
donment of  that  institution  as  ours.  I  ^^ 
that  the  party  in  power  has  barricaded  itself 
against  the  establishment  of  such  a  bank.  1^ 
adopted,  at  the  last  extra  session,  the  extraor- 
dinary and  unprecedented  resolution,  that  the 
people  of  the  United  States  should  not  ha^J 
such  a  bank,  although  it  might  be  manifest  tb»t 


J 


ANNO  188a    MABTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDKNT. 


103 


there  was  a  clear  majority  of  them  demanding 
it.  But  the  day  may  oomcL  and  I  trust  is  not 
distant,  when  vnd  will  of  tne  people  must  pre- 
vsul  in  the  councils  of  her  own  goyernment; 
and  when  it  does  arriye,  a  bank  mil  be  estab- 
lished. 

^'The  senator  from  South  Carolina  reminds 
as  that  we  denounced  the  pet  bank  system ; 
and  so  we  did,  and  so  we  do.  But  does  it 
therefore  follow  that,  bad  as  that  system  was, 
we  must  be  driyen  into  the  acceptance  of  a  sys- 
tem infinitely  worse  7  He  tells  us  that  the  bill 
under  consideration  takes  the  public  funds  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  £zecutiye,  and  places  them 
in  the  hands  of  the  law.  It  does  no  such  thing. 
They  are  now  without  law,  it  is  true,  in  the 
custody  of  the  Executive;  and  the  bill  pro- 
poses by  law  to  confirm  them  in  that  custody, 
and  to  convey  new  and  enormous  powers  or 
control  to  the  Executive  oyer  them.  Every 
custodary  of  the  public  funds  provided  by  the 
bill  is  a  creature  of  the  Executive,  dependent 
upon  his  breath,  and  subject  to  the  same  breath 
for  removal,  whenever  the  Executive — ^from 
caprice,  from  tyranny,  or  firom  party  motives — 
shall  choose  to  order  it.  What  safety  is  there 
for  the  public  money,  if  there  were  a  hundred 
subordinate  executive  officers  charged  with  its 

n  whilst  the  doctrine  of  the  abrolute  unity 
e  whole  executive  power,  promulgated  by 
the  last  administration,  and  persisted  in  by 
this,  remains  unrevoked  and  unrebuked  ? 

'^  Whilst  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
professes  to  be  the  friend  of  State  banks,  he 
has  attacked  the  whole  banking  system  of  the 
United  States.  He  is  their  friend;  he  only 
thinks  they  are  all  unconstitutional !  Why  ? 
Because  the  coining  power  is  possessed  by  the 
general  government ;  and  that  coining  power, 
he  aigues,  was  intended  to  supply  a  currency 
of  the  precious  metals ;  but  the  State  banks 
absorb  the  precious  metals,  and  withdraw  them 
from  circulation,  and,  therefore,  are  in  conflict 
with  the  coining  power.  That  power,  accord- 
ing to  my  view  of  it^  is  nothing  but  a  naked 
authority  to  stamp  certain  pieces  of  the  precious 
metals,  in  fixed  proportions  of  alloy  and  pure 
metal  prescribed  by  law;  so  that  their  exact 
value  be  known.  When  that  office  is  performed, 
the  power  is  functua  officio  ;  the  money  passes 
out  of  the  mint,  and  becomes  the  lawful  prop- 
erty of  those  who  legally  acquire  it  They 
may  do  with  it  as  they  please, — throw  it  into 
the  ocean,  bury  it  in  the  earth,  or  melt  it  in  a 
crucible,  without  violating  any  law.  When  it 
has  once  left  the  vaults  of  the  mmt,  the  law 
maker  has  nothing  to  do  with  it  but  to  protect 
it  against  those  who  attempt  to  debase  or  coun- 
terfeit, and,  subsequently,  to  pass  it  as  lawful 
money.  In  the  sense  in  which  the  senator 
supposes  banks  to  conflict  with  the  coining 
power,  foreign  commerce,  and  especially  our 
commerce  with  China,  conflicts  with  it  much 
more  extensively. 


"  The  distinguished  senator  is  no  enemy  to  the 
banks ;  he  merely  thinks  them  injurious  to  the 
morals  and  industry  of  the  country.  He  likes 
them  very  well,  but  he  nevertheless  believes 
that  they  levy  a  tax  of  twenty-five  millions  an- 
nuidly  on  the  industry  of  the  country !  The 
senator  from  South  Carolina  would  do  the  banks 
no  harm ;  but  they  are  deemed  by  him  hi^y 
injurious  to  the  planting  interest!  According 
to  him^  they  inflate  prices,  and  the  poor  planter 
sells  his  productions  for  hard  money,  and  has 
to  purchase  his  supplies  at  the  swollen  prices 
produced  by  a  paper  medium.  The  senator  tells 
us  that  it  has  been  only  within  a  few  days  that 
he  has  discovered  that  it  is  illegal  to  reoeive  bank 
notes  in  payment  of  public  dues.  Does  he  think 
that  the  usage  of  the  government  under  all  its 
administrations,  and  with  every  party  in  power, 
which  has  prevailed  for  nigh  fifty  years,  ought 
to  be  set  aside  by  a  novel  theory  of  his,  just 
dreamed  into  existences  even  if  it  possess  the 
merit  of  ingenuity  ?  Tne  bill  under  considera- 
tion, which  has  been  eulogized  by  the  senator 
as  perfect  in  its  structure  and  detuls,  contains  a 
provision  that  bank  notes  shall  be  received  m 
diminished  proportions,  during  a  term  of  six 
years.  He  himself  introduced  the  identical 
principle.  It  is  the  only  part  of  the  bill  that  is 
emphatically  his.  How,  then,  can  he  contend 
that  it  is  unconstitutional  to  receive  bank  notes 
in  payment  of  public  dues  ?  I  appeal  from  him- 
self to  himself.'' 

^^  The  doctrine  of  the  senator  in  1816  was.  as 
he  now  states  it,  that  bank  notes  being  in  »ct 
received  by  the  executive,  although  contrary  to 
law,  it  was  constitutional  to  create  a  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  And  in  1834,  finding  that  bank 
which  was  constitutional  in  its  inception,  but 
had  become  unconstitutional  in  its  progress,  yet 
in  existence,  it  was  quite  constitutionid  to  pro- 
pose, as  the  senator  did,  to  continue  it  twelve 
years  longer." 

^  The  senator  and  I  b^an  our  public  career 
nearly  together ;  we  remained  together  through- 
out the  war.  We  agreed  as  to  a  Bank  of  the 
United  States-^as  to  a  protective  tarifi*— as  to 
internal  improvements ;  and  lately  as  to  those 
arbitrary  and  violent  measures  which  character- 
ized the  administration  of  General  Jackson. 
No  two  men  ever  agreed  better  together  in  re- 
spect to  important  measures  of  public  policy. 
We  concur  in  nothing  now." 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

DEBATE   BETWEEN   MB.    OLAY  AND   MB.   CAL- 
HOUN: MB.  CALHOUN'S  SPEECH;  EXTBACT8. 

^I  RISE  to  fulfil  a  promise  I  made  some  time 
since,  to  notice  at  my  leisure  the  reply  of  the 
senator  from  Kentudcy  farthest  from  me  [Mr. 


104 


THBftTT  YEABS^  VIEW. 


Olat],  to  my  remarks,  when  I  first  addressed 
the  Senate  on  the  subject  now  under  discos- 
sion. 

"  On  comparing  with  care  the  reply  with  the 
remarks,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine  whether  it 
is  the  most  remarkable  for  its  omissions  or  mis- 
statements. Instead  of  leaving  not  a  hair  in  the 
head  of  my  arguments,  as  the  senator  threaten- 
ed (to  use  his  not  yery  dignified  expression),  he 
has  not  eyen  attempted  to  answer  a  large,  and 
not  the  least  weighty,  portion;  and  of  that 
which  he  has,  there  is  not  one  fiiirly  stated,  or 
fiurly  answered.  I  speak  literally,  and  without 
exaggeration ;  nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  estab- 
lish to  the  letter  what  I  assert,  if  I  could  recon- 
cile it  to  myself  to  consume  the  time  of  the 
Senate  in  establishing  a  long  series  of  negative 
propositions,  in  which  they  could  take  but  little 
mterest  however  important  th^  may  be  re- 
garded oy  the  senator  and  mysel£  To  avoid  so 
idle  a  consumption  of  the  time,  I  propose  to 
present  a  few  instances  of  his  misstatements, 
from  which  the  rest  may  be  inferred ;  and,  that 
I  may  not  be  suspected  of  having  selected  them, 
I  shall  take  them  in  the  order  in  which  they 
stand  in  his  reply. 

[The  argumentative  part  omitted.] 
'^  But  the  senator  did  not  restrict  himself  to 
a  reply  to  my  arguments.  He  introduced  pei^ 
sonai  remarks,  which  neither  self-respect,  nor  a 
r^ard  to  the  cause  I  support,  will  permit  me  to 
pass  without  notice,  as  adverse  as  I  am  to  all 
personal  controversies.  Not  only  my  education 
and  disposition,  but^  above  all,  my  conception  of 
the  duties  belonging  to  the  station  I  occupy,  in- 
disposes me  to  such  controversies.  We  are  sent 
here,  not  to  vmmgle,  or  indulge  in  personal 
abuse,  but  to  dehberiite  and  decide  on  the  com- 
mon interests  of  the  States  of  this  Union^  as  far 
as  they  have  been  sul^ected  by  the  constitution 
to  our  jurisdiction.  Thus  thinking  and  feeling, 
and  having  perfect  confidence  in  the  cause  I  sup- 
port, I  addressed  myself  when  I  was  last  up, 
directly  and  exclusively  to  the  understanding, 
carefully  avoiding  every  remark  which  had 
the  least  personsJ  or  party  bearing.  In  proof 
of  this,  I  appeal  to  you,  senators,  my  wit- 
nesses and  judges  on  tms  occasion.  But  it 
seems  that  no  caution  on  my  part  could  prevent 
what  I  was  so  anxious  to  avoid.  The  senator, 
having  no  pretext  to  give  a  personal  direction 
to  the  discussion,  made  a  premeditated  and 
gratuitous  attack  on  me.  I  say  havine  no  pre- 
text ;  for  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  foundation  for 
the  assertion  that  I  called  on  him  and  his  party 
to  foUow  my  lead,  at  which  he  seemed  to  take 
ofienoe,  as  1  have  already  shown.  I  made  no 
such  call,  or  any  thing  that  could  be  construed 
into  it.  It  would  have  been  impertinent,  in  the 
relation  between  myself  and  his  party,  at  any 
stage  of  this  question;  and  absurd  at  that  late 
period,  when  every  senator  had  made  up  bis 
mind.  As  there  was,  then,  neither  provocation 
nor  pretext^  what  could  be  the  motive  of  the 


senator  in  making  the  attack  ?  It  could  not  be 
to  indulge  in  the  pleasure  of  personal  abuse— the 
lowest  and  basest  of  all  our  passions ;  and  which 
is  so  fiir  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  senator's 
character  and  station.  Nor  could  it  be  with  the 
view  to  intimidation.  The  senator  knows  me 
too  long,  and  too  well,  to  make  such  an  attempt. 
I  am  sent  here  by  constituents  as  respectable 
as  those  he  represents,  in  order  to  watch  over 
their  peculiar  mterests,  and  take  care  of  the 

Senend  concern ;  and  if  I  were  capable  of  beisg 
eterred  by  any  one,  or  any  consequence,  in 
discharging  my  duty,  from  denouncing  what  I 
regai^^  as  dangerous  or  corrupt,  or  giving  a 
decided  and  zealous  support  to  what  I  thought 
right  and  expedient,  I  would,  in  shame  and  con- 
fusion, return  my  commission  to  the  patriotic 
and  gallant  State  I  represent,  to  be  placed  in 
more  resolute  and  trustworthy  hands. 

"  If,  then,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  of 
these  be  the  motive,  what,  I  repeat,  can  it  be? 
In  casting  my  eyes  over  the  whole  surface  I  can 
see  but  one,  which  is,  that  the  senator,  despairing 
of  the  sufficiency  of  his  reply  to  overthrow  mj 
arguments,  had  resorted  to  personalities,  in  the 
hope,  with  their  aid,  to  effect  what  he  could  not 
accomplish  by  main  strength.  He  well  knows 
that  the  force  of  an  argument  on  moral  or  politi- 
cal subjects  depends  greatly  on  the  character  of 
him  who  advanced  it ;  and  that  to  cast  suspicion 
on  his  sincerity  or  motive,  or  to  shake  confi- 
dence in  his  understanding,  is  often  the  most  ef- 
fectual mode  to  destroy  its  force.  Thus  viewed, 
his  personalities  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  con- 
stituting a  part  of  his  reply  to  my  argument; 
and  we,  accordingly,  find  the  senator  throwing 
them  in  ^ont,  like  a  skilful  general,  in  order  to 
weaken  my  ax^guments  before  he  brought  on  his 
main  attack.  In  repelling,  then,  his  personal 
attacks,  I  also  defend  the  cause  which  I  advo- 
cate. It  is  against  that  his  blows  are  aimed, 
and  he  strikes  at  it  through  me,  because  he  be- 
lieves his  blows  will  be  the  more  efiectoal. 

**  Having  given  this  direction  to  his  reply,  he 
has  impo^  on  me  a  double  duty  to  repel  his 
attacks :  duty  to  myself  and  to  the  cause  I  sup- 
port I  shall  not  decline  its  performance ;  aw 
when  it  is  discharged,  I  trust  I  shall  have  placed 
my  character  as  far  beyond  the  darts  which 
he  has  hurled  at  it,  as  my  arguments  have 
proved  to  be  above  his  abilities  to  reply  to 
them.  In  doing  this,  I  shall  be  compelled  to 
speak  of  myself.  No  one  can  be  more  sensibw 
thim  I  am  how  odious  it  is  to  speak  of  ones 
self.  I  shall  endeavor  to  confine  myself  within 
the  limits  of  the  strictest  propriety;  but  if  Mjy 
thing  should  escape  me  lliat  may  wound  the 
most  delicate  ear,  the  odium  ought  in  justice  to 
fall  not  on  me,  but  the  senator,  whOj  by  his  un- 
provoked and  wanton  attack,  has  unposed  on 
me  the  painful  necessity  of  speaking  of  myseii* 

"  The  leading  charge  of  the  senator— that  on 
which  all  the  others  depend,  and  which,  being 
overthrown,  they  fall  to  the  ground— is  that  i 


AKNO  1888.    MABTIN  YAK  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


105 


have  gone  over ;  haye  left  his  side^  and  joined 
the  other.  By  this  yague  and  mdefinite  ex- 
preasion,  I  presume  he  meant  to  implj  that  I 
had  either  changed  my  opinion,  or  abandoned 
my  principle,  or  deserted  my  puty.  If  he  did 
not  mean  one,  or  all ;  if  I  have  changed  neither 
opinions,  principles,  nor  party,  then  the  charge 
meant  nothing  deserving  notice.  Bat  if  he  in- 
tended to  imply,  what  I  haye  presnmed  he  did, 
I  take  issue  on  the  &ct — ^I  meet  and  repel  the 
charge.  It  happened,  fortunately  for  me,  fortu- 
nately for  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice,  that  it 
was  not  the  first  time  that  I  had  offered  my 
sentiments  on  the  question  now  under  consid- 
eration. There  is  scarcely  a  single  point  in  the 
present  issue  on  which  I  did  not  explicitly  ex- 
press my  opinion,  four  years  ago,  in  my  place 
nere,  when  the  remoyal  of  the  deposits  and 
the  questions  connected  with  it  were  under  dis- 
cussion— BO  explicitly  as  to  repel  effectually  the 
diarge  of  any  change  on  my  part ;  and  to  make 
it  impossible  for  me  to  pursue  any  other  course 
than  I  have  without  involying  myself  in  gross 
inconsistency.  I  intend  not  to  l^ve  so  impor- 
tant a  point  to  rest  on  my  bare  assertion. 
What  I  assert  stands  on  record,  which  I  now 
hold  in  my  possession,  and  intend,  at  the  prop- 
er time,  to  introduce  and  read.  But,  beiore  I 
do  that,  it  will  be  proper  I  should  state  the 
(questions  now  at  issue,  and  my  coarse  in  rela- 
tion to  them ;  so  that,  having  a  clear  and  dis- 
tinct perception  of  them,  you  may,  senators, 
readily  and  satisfactorily  compare  and  deter- 
mine whether  my  course  on  the  present  occa- 
sion coincides  with  the  opinions  I  then  ex- 
pressed. 

"  There  are  three  questions,  as  is  agreed  by 
all,  involved  in  the  present  issue :  Shall  we  sep- 
arate the  government  from  the  banks,  or  shall 
we  revive  the  league  of  State  banks,  or  create 
a  national  bank?  My  opinion  and  course  in 
reference  to  each  are  well  known.  I  prefer  the 
separation  to  either  of  the  others ;  and,  as  be- 
tween the  other  two,  I  regard  a  national  bank 
as  a  more  efficient,  and  a  less  corrupting  fiscal 
agent  than  a  league  of  State  banks.  It  is  also 
well  known  that  I  have  expressed  myself  on 
the  present  occasion  hostile  to  the  banking  sys- 
tem, as  it  exists ;  and  against  the  constitutional 
power  of  making  a  bank,  unless  on  the  assump- 
tion tiiat  we  have  the  right  to  receive  and  treat 
bank-notes  as  cash  in  our  fiscal  operations, 
which  I,  for  the  first  time,  have  denied  on  the 
present  oocasion.  Now,  I  entertained  and  ex- 
pressed aU  these  opinions,  on  a  different  occa- 
sion, four  years  ago,  except  the  right  of  receiv- 
ing bank-notes,  in  regard  to  which  I  then  re- 
served my  opinion ;  and  if  all  this  should  be 
fully  and  clearly  established  by  the  record,  from 
speeches  delivered  and  published  at  the  time, 
the  charge  of  the  senator  must,  in  the  opinion 
of  all,  however  prejudiced,  sink  to  the  ground. 
I  am  npw  prepared  to  introduce,  and  have  the 
leoozd  read.    I  delivered  two  speeches  in  the 


session  of  1833-'34,  one  on  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  and  the  other  on  the  question  of  the 
renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  late  bank.  I  ask 
the  secretary  to  turn  to  the  volume  lying  be- 
fore him,  and  read  the  three  paragraphs  marked 
in  my  speech  on  the  deposits.  I  will  thank 
him  to  raise  his  voice,  and  read  slowly,  so  that 
he  may  be  distinctly  heard ;  and  I  must  ask  yoo, 
senators,  to  give  your  attentive  hearing ;  for  on 
the  coincidence  iJetween  my  opinions  then  and 
my  course  now,  my  vindication  against  this  un- 
provoked and  groundless  charge  rests. 

''  [The  secretary  of  the  Senate  read  as  request- 
ed.] 

"Such  were  my  sentiments,  dehveted  four 
years  since,  on  the  question  of  the  removal  of 
the  deposits,  and  now  standing  on  record ;  and 
I  now  call  your  attention  senators,  while  they 
are  fresh  in  your  minds,  and  before  other  ex- 
tracts are  read,  to  the  opinions  I  then  enter- 
tained and  expressed,  in  order  that  you  may 
compare  them  with  those  that  I  have  express- 
ed, and  the  course  I  have  pursued  on  the  pres- 
ent occasion.  In  the  first  place,  I  then  ex- 
pressed myself  expliciUy  and  decidedly  against 
the  banking  system,  and  intimated,  in  language 
too  strong  to  be  mistaken,  that,  if  the  question 
was  then  bank  or  no  bank,  as  it  now  is,  as  fiur 
as  government  is  concerned,  I  would  not  be 
found  on  the  side  of  the  bank.  Now,  I  ask,  I 
appeal  to  the  candor  of  alL  even  the  most  prej- 
udiced, is  there  any  thing  m  all  this  contradic- 
tory to  my  present  opinions  or  course  ?  On 
the  contrary,  having  entertained  and  expressed 
these  opinions,  could  I,  at  this  time,  when  the 
issue  1  then  supposed  is  actually  presented, 
have  gone  against  the  separation  without  gross 
inconsistency  ?  Again,  I  then  declared  myself 
to  be  utterly  opposed  to  a  combination  or  league 
of  State  banks,  as  being  the  most  efficient  and 
corrupting  fiscal  agent  the  government  could 
select,  and  more  d[>jectionable  than  a  bank  of 
the  United  States.  I  again  appeal,  is  there  a 
sentiment  or  a  word  in  all  this  contradictory  to 
what  I  have  said,  or  done,  on  the  present  occa- 
sion ?  So  far  otherwise,  is  there  not  a  perfect 
harmony  and  coincidence  throughout,  which, 
considering  the  distance  of  time  and  the  differ- 
ence of  the  occasion,  is  truly  remarkable ;  and 
this  extending  to  all  the  great  and  governing 
questions  now  at  issue  ? 

"^  To  prove  all  this  I  again  refer  to  the  record. 
If  it  shall  appear  from  it  that  my  object  was  to 
disconnect  the  government  gradually  and  cau- 
tiously from  the  banking  system,  and  with  that 
view,  and  that  only,  I  proposed  to  use  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  for  a  short  time,  and  that  I 
explicitiy  expressed  the  same  opinions  then  as 
I  now  have  on  almost  every  point  connected 
with  the  system ;  I  shall  not  only  have  vindi- 
cated my  character  from  the  charge  of  the  sen- 
ator from  Kentucky,  but  shall  do  more,  much 
more  to  show  that  I  did  all  an  individual, 
standing  alone,  as  I  did,,  could  do  to  avert  the 


106 


THIRT7  YEABS*  VIEW. 


present  calamities :  and,  of  course,  I  am  free 
from  all  responsibility  for  what  has  since  hap- 
pened. I  have  shortened  the  extracts,  as  fkr  as 
was  possible  to  do  justice  to  myself,  and  haye 
left  out  much  that  ought,  of  right,  to  be  read  in 
my  defence,  rather  than  to  weary  the  Senate. 
I  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  command  attention 
to  reading  of  documents ;  but  I  trust  that  this, 
where  justice  to  a  member  of  the  body,  whose 
character  has  been  assailed,  without  the  least 
proyocation,  will  form  an  exception.  The  ex- 
tracts are  numbered,  and  I  will  thank  the  sec- 
retary to  pause  at  the  end  of  each,  unless  other- 
wise desired. 
"  [The  secretary  read  as  requested.] 
^  But  the  removal  of  the  deposits  was  not  the 
only  question  discussed  at  that  remarkable  and 
important  session.  The  charter  of  the  United 
States  Bank  was  then  about  to  expire.  The 
senator  from  Massachusetts  nearest  to  me  [Mr. 
Webster],  then  at  the  head  of  the  committee 
on  finance,  suggested,  in  his  place,  that  he 
intended  to  introduoe  a  bill  to  renew  the 
charter.  I  clearly  perceived  that  the  movement^ 
if  made,  would  fiul;  and  that  there  was  no 
prospect  of  doing  any  thing  to  arrest  the  dan- 
ger approaching,  unless  the  subject  was  taken 
up  on  the  broad  question  of  the  currency ;  and 
that  if  any  connection  of  the  government  with 
the  banks  could  be  justified  at  all,  it  must  be  in 
that  relation.  I  am  not  among  those  who  be- 
lieve that  the  currency  was  in  a  sound  condition 
when  the  deposits  were  removed  in  1834.  I 
then  believed^  and  experience  has  proved  I  was 
correct,  that  it  was  deeply  and  dangerously  dis- 
eased; and  that  the  most  efficient  measures 
were  necessary  to  prevent  the  catastrophe  which 
has  since  fallen  on  the  circulation  of  the  country. 
There  was  then  not  more  than  one  dollar  in 
specie,  on  an  average,  in  the  banks,  including 
the  United  States  Bank  and  all,  for  six  of  bank 
notes  in  circulation;  and  not  more  than  one 
in  eleven  compared  to  liabilities  of  the  banks ; 
and  this  while  the  United  States  Bank  was  in 
fiill  and  active  operation ;  which  proves  con- 
clusively that  its  charter  ought  not  to  be  re- 
newed, if  renewed  at  all,  without  great  modifica- 
tions. I  saw  also  that  the  expansion  of  the  cir- 
culation, groat  as  it  then  was,  must  still  farther 
increase ;  that  the  disease  lay  deep  in  the  sys- 
tem ;  that  the  terms  on  which  the  charter  of  the 
Bank  of  England  was  renewed  would  give  a 
western  direction  to  specie,  which,  instead  of 
correcting  the  disorder,  by  substituting  specie 
ibr  bank  notes  in  our  circulation,  would  become 
the  basis  of  new  banking  operations  that  would 
greatly  increase  the  swelling  tide.  Such  were 
my  conceptions  then,  and  I  honestly  and  ear- 
nestly endeavored  to  carry  them  into  effect,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  approaching  catastrophe. 

"  The  political  and  personal  relations  between 
n^self  and  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr. 
Webster],  were  then  not  the  kindest.  We 
stood  in  opposition  at  the  preceding  session  on 


the  great  question  growing  out  of  the  conflict 
between  the  State  I  represented  and  the  genenl 
government,  which  could  not  pass  away  with- 
out leaving  unfriendly  feelings  on  both  sides; 
but  where  duty  is  involved,  I  am  not  in  the 
habit  of  permitting  my  personal  relations  to  iii- 
terfere.  In  my  solicitude  to  ayoid  coming  dan- 
gers, I  sought  an  interview,  through  a  common 
niend,  in  order  to  compare  opinions  as  to  the 
proper  course  to  be  pursued.  We  met,  and  con- 
versed freely  and  fiiUy,  but  parted  without 
agreeing.  I  expressed  to  him  my  deep  regret 
at  our  disagreement,  and  informed  him  that,  al- 
though I  could  not  agree  with  him,  I  would 
throw  no  embarrassment  in  his  way ;  but  should 
feel  it  to  be  my  duty,  when  he  made  his  motion 
to  introduce  a  bill  to  renew  the  charter  of  the 
bank,  to  express  my  opinion  at  large  on  the 
state  of  the  currency  and  the  proper  course  to 
be  pursued ;  which  I  accordingly  did.  On  that 
memorable  occasion  I  stood  almost  alone.  One 
party  supported  the  league  of  State  banks,  and 
the  other  the  United  States  Bank,  the  charter 
of  which  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  [>ir. 
Webster,]  proposed  to  renew  for  six  yeare. 
Nothing  was  left  me  but  to  place  myself  dis- 
tinctly before  the  country  on  the  ground  I  occu- 
pied, which  I  did  fully  and  explicitly  in  the 
speech  I  delivered  on  the  occasion.  In  justice 
to  myself;  I  ought  to  have  every  word  of  it  read 
on  the  present  occasion.  It  would  of  itself  be  a 
full  vindication  of  my  course.  I  stated  and  cd- 
larged  on  all  the  points  to  which  I  have  already 
referred ;  objected  to  the  recharter  as  proposed 
by  the  mover;  and  foretold  that  what  has  since 
happened  would  follow,  unless  something  effec- 
tual was  done  to  prevent  it.  As  a  remedy,  I 
proposed  to  use  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
as  a  temporary  expedient,  fortified  with  strong 
guards,  in  order  to  resist  and  turn  back  the 
swelling  tide  of  circulation. 

"After  haying  so  expressed  myself,  which  clear- 
ly shows  that  my  object  was  to  use  the  bank 
for  a  time  in  such  a  manner  as  to  break  the 
connection  with  the  system,  without  a  shock  to 
the  country  or  currency,  I  then  proceed  aiid  ex- 
amine the  question,  whether  this  could  be  best 
accomplished  by  the  renewal  of  the  charter  of 
the  United  SUtes  Bank,  or  through  a  league  of 
State  banks.  After  concluding  what  I  had  W 
say  on  the  subject,  in  my  deep  solicitude  I  iw" 
dressed  the  three  parties  in  the  Senate  sepa- 
rately, urging  such  motives  as  I  thought  best 
calculated  to  act  on  them ;  and  pressing  them  ^ 
join  me  in  the  measure  suggested,  in  order  to 
avert  approaching  danger.  I  be^  with  DijF 
friends  of  the  State  rights  party,  and  witn 
the  administration.  I  have  taken  copious  ex- 
tracts from  the  address  to  the  first,  which  wiU 
clearly  prove  how  exactly  my  opinions  then  and 
now  coincide  on  all  questions  connected  ^^^^ 
the  banks.  I  now  ask  the  secretary  to  read  ttfi 
extract  numbered  two. 

"  [The  secretary  read  accordingly.] 


ANKO  1838.    MARTIN  VAN  B0REN,  FBESroENT. 


107 


''I  regret  to  tnspass  on  the  patience  of  the 
Senate,  bat  I  wish,  in  justice  to  myself^  to  ask 
their  attention  to  one  more,  which,  though  not 
immediately  relatmg  to  the  question  under  con- 
sideration, is  not  urrelevant  to  my  yindication. 
I  not  only  e3q>res8ed  my  opinions  freely  in  rela- 
tion to  the  currency  and  the  bank,  in  the  speech 
from  which  such  copious  extracts  haye  been 
read,  but  had  the  precaution  to  define  my 
political  position  distinctly  in  reference  to  the 
political  parties  of  the  day,  and  the  course  I 
would  pursue  in  relation  to  each.  I  then,  as 
now,  belonged  to  the  party  to  which  it  is  my 
glory  ever  to  haye  been  attached  ezclusiyely ; 
and  ayowed,  explicitly,  that  I  belonged  to  nei- 
ther of  the  two  parties,  opposition  or  adminis- 
tration, then  contending  for  superiority ;  which 
of  itself  ought  to  go  iar  to  repel  the  charge  of 
the  senator  from  Kentucky,  that  I  haye  gone 
oyer  from  one  party  to  the  other.  The  secre- 
tary will  read  the  last  extract 

*^rThe  secretary  read.] 

'^  Such,  senators,  are  my  recorded  sentiments 
in  1834.  They  are  full  and  explicit  on  all  the 
questions  inyolyed  in  the  present  issue,  and 
proye,  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt,  tnat  I 
haye  changed  no  opinion,  abandoned  no  princi- 
ple, nor  deserted  any  party.  I  stand  now  on 
the  ground  I  stood  then,  and,  of  course,  if  my 
relations  to  the  two  opjposing  parties  are 
changed — if  I  now  act  with  those  I  then  op- 
posed, and  oppose  those  with  whom  I  then 
acted,  the  change  is  not  in  me.  I,  at  least,  haye 
stood  stilL  In  saying  this,  I  accuse  none  of 
changing.  I  leaye  others  to  explain  their  posi- 
tion, now  and  then,  if  they  deem  explanation 
necessary.  But,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  state 
my  opinion,  I  would  say  that  the  change  is 
rather  in  the  questions  and  the  circumstances, 
than  in  the  opinions  or  prindples  of  either  or 
the  parties.  The  opposition  were  then,  and  are 
now,  national  bank  men,  and  the  administra- 
tion, in  like  manner,  were  anti-national  bank, 
and  in  fayor  oi  a  league  of  State  banks ;  while  I 
preferred  then,  as  now,  the  former  to  the  latter, 
and  a  diyorce  rrom  banks  to  either.  When  the 
experiment  of  the  league  failed,  the  administra- 
tion were  reduced  to  the  option  between  a 
national  bank  and  a  diyorce.  They  chose  the 
latter,  and  such,  I  haye  no  reason  to  doubt, 
would  haye  been  their  choice,  had  the  option 
been  the  same  four  years  ago.  Nor  haye  I  any 
doubt,  had  the  option  been  then  between  a 
lei^e  of  banks  and  diyorce,  the  opposition 
then,  as  now,  would  haye  been  in  fayor  of  the 
league.  In  all  this  there  is  more  apparent  than 
real  change.  As  to  myself,  there  has  been 
neither.  If  I  acted  with  the  opposition  and 
opposed  the  administration  then,  it  was  because 
I  was  openly  opposed  to  the  remoyal  of  the 
deposits  and  the  league  of  banks,  as  I  now  am ; 
and  if  I  now  act  with  the  latter  and  oppose  the 
former^  it  is  because  I  am  now,  as  then,  in  fayor 
of  a  diyoroe,  and  opposed  to  either  a  league  of 


State  banks  or  a  national  bank,  except,  indeed, 
as  the  means  of  effecting  a  diyorce  gradually 
and  safely.  What,  then,  is  my  ofience  ?  What 
but  refusing  to  abandon  my  first  choice,  the 
diyoroe  from  the  banks,  because  the  administra- 
tion has  selected  it.  and  of  goioff  with  the  oppo- 
sition for  a  national  bank,  to  which  I  haye  been 
and  am  still  opposed  f  Tnat  is  all ;  and  for  this 
I  am  charged  with  going  oyer — leaying  one 
party  and  Joining  the  other. 

"  Yet,  in  the  face  of  all  this,  the  senator  has 
not  only  made  the  charge,  but  has  said,  in  his 
place,  that  he  heard^  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  at  the  extra  session,  that  I  was  opposed  to 
a  national  bank !  I  could  place  the  senator  in 
a  dilemma  from  whidi  there  is  no  possibility 
of  escape.  I  might  say  to  him,  you  haye  either 
forgot,  or  not,  what  I  said  in  1834.  If  you  haye 
no^  how  can  you  justify  yourself  in  making  the 
chu^  you  haye  ?  But  if  you  haye — ^if  you 
haye  forgot  what  is  so  recent,  and  what,  from 
the  magnitude  of  the  question  and  the  import- 
ance of  the  occasion,  was  so  well  calculated  to 
impress  itself  on  your  memory,  what  possible 
yalue  can  be  attached  to  your  recollection  or 
opinions,  as  to  my  course  on  more  remote  and 
less  memorable  occasions,  on  which  you  haye 
undertaken  to  impeach  n^  conduct  1  lie  may 
take  his  choice. 

^  Haying  now  established  by  the  record  that 
I  haye  chuiged  no  opinion,  abandoned  no  prin- 
ciple, nor  deserted  any  party,  the  charge  of  the 
senator,  with  all  the  aspersions  with  which  he 
acoompanied  it,  fiills  prostrate  to  the  earth. 
Here  I  might  leaye  the  subject,  and  close  my 
yindication.  But  I  choose  not  I  shall  follow 
the  senator  up,  step  by  step,  in  his  unproyoked, 
and  I  may  now  add,  groundless  attack,  with 
blows  not  less  decisiye  and  yictorious. 

^^  The  senator  next  proceeded  to  state,  that 
in  a  certain  document  (if  he  named  it,  I  did 
not  hear  him)  I  assigned  as  the  reason  why  I 
could  not  join  in  the  attack  on  the  administra- 
tion, that  the  benefit  of  the  yictory  would  not 
enure  to  myself,  or  my  party;  or,  as  he  ex- 
plained himself,  because  it  would  not  place 
myself  and  them  in  power.  I  presume  he  re- 
ferred to  a  letter,  in  answer  to  an  inyitation  to 
a  public  dinner,  offered  me  by  my  old  and  fiuth- 
ful  friends  and  constituents  of  £dgefield,  in  ap- 
probation of  my  course  at  the  extra  session. 

*' [Mr.  Clay.    I  do.] 

"The  pressure  of  domestic  engagements 
would  not  pNBrmit  me  to  accept  their  invitation ; 
and,  in  declining  it,  I  deemed  it  due  to  them 
and  myself  to  explain  my  course,  in  its  political 
and  party  bearing,  more  fully  than  I  had  done 
io  debate.  They  had  a  right  to  know  my  rea- 
sons, and  I  expressed  myself  with  the  frankness 
due  to  the  long  and  uninterrupted  confidence 
that  had  eyer  existed  between  us. 

"  Haying  made  these  explanatory  remarks,  I 
now  proceed  to  meet  the  assertion  of  the  sen- 
ator.   I  again  take  issue  on  the  fitct    I  assigned 


108 


THIRTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


no  such  reason  as  the  senator  attributes  to  me. 
I  nerer  dreamed  nor  thought  of  such  a  one ;  nor 
can  an^  force  of  construction  extort  such  from 
what  I  said.  No ;  my  object  was  not  power  or 
place,  either  for  myself  or  party.  I  was  hr 
more  humble  and  honest.  It  was  to  save  our- 
selves and  our  principles  from  being  absorbed 
and  lost  in  a  parV)  ^o^  numerous  and  power- 
ful ;  but  differing  m>m  us  on  almost  every  prin- 
ciple and  question  of  policy. 

''When  the  suspension  of  specie  pa3rments 
took  place  in  May  last  (not  unexpected  to  me), 
I  immediately  turned  my  attention  to  the  event 
earnestly,  considering  it  as  an  event  pregnant 
with  great  and  lasting  consequences.  Review- 
ing the  whole  ground,  I  saw  nothing  to  change 
in  the  opinions  and  principles  I  had  avowed  m 
1834 ;  and  I  determined  to  carry  them  out^  as 
&T  as  circumstances  and  my  ability  would  ena- 
ble me.  But  I  saw  that  my  course  must  be 
influenced  by  the  position  which  the  two  great 
contending  parties  might  take  in  reference  to 
the  question.  I  did  not  doubt  that  the  opposi- 
tion would  rally  either  on  a  national  bank,  or 
a  combination  of  State  banks,  with  Mr.  Biddle's 
at  the  head ;  but  I  was  wholly  uncertain  what 
course  the  administration  would  adopt,  and  re- 
mained so  until  the  message  of  the  President 
was  received  and  i«ad  by  the  secretary  at  his 
table.  When  I  saw  he  went  for  a  divorce^  I 
never  hesitated  a  moment  Not  only  my  opm- 
ions  and  principles  long  entertained,  and,  as  I 
have  shown,  fully  expressed  years  ago,  but  the 
highest  political  motives,  left  me  no  alternative. 
I  perceived  at  once  that  the  object,  to  accom- 
plish which  we  had  acted  in  concert  with  the 
opposition,  had  ceased :  Executive  usurpations 
had  come  to  an  end  for  the  present :  and  that 
the  struggle  with  the  administration  was  no 
longer  for  power,  but  to  save  themselves.  I 
also  clearly  saw,  that  if  we  should  unite  with 
the  opposition  in  their  attack  on  the  adminis- 
tration, the  victory  over  them,  in  the  position 
they  occupied,  would  be  a  victory  over  us  and 
our  principles.  It  required  no  sagacity  to  see 
that  such  would  be  the  result.  It  was  as  plain 
as  day.  The  administration  had  taken  position, 
as  I  have  shown,  on  the  very  ground  I  oocujMea 
in  1834;  and  which  the  whole  State  rights 
narty  had  taken  at  the  same  time  in  the  other 
Mouse,  as  its  journals  will  prove.  The  opposi- 
tion, under  the  banner  of  the  bank,  were  moving 
against  them  for  the  verjr  reason  that  they  had 
taJcen  the  ground  they  did. 

"  Now,  I  ask,  what  would  have  been  the  re- 
sult if  we  had  joined  in  the  attack  ?  No  one 
can  now  doubt  that  the  victory  over  those  in 
power  would  have  been  certain  and  decisive, 
nor  would  the  consequences  have  been  the 
least  doubtful.  The  first  fruit  would  have  been 
a  national  bank.  The  principles  of  the  opposi- 
tion, and  the  very  object  of  the  attack,  would 
have  necessarily  led  to  that  We  would  have 
been  not  only  too  feeble  to  resist)  but  would 


have  been  committed  by  joining  in  the  attadk 
with  its  avowed  object  to  ^  for  one,  while 
those  who  support  the  administration  would 
have  been  scattered  in  the  winds.  We  should 
then  have  had  a  bank — ^that  is  dear;  nor  is  it 
less  certain,  that  in  its  train  there  would  have 
followed  all  the  consequences  which  have  and 
ever  will  fi)llow,  when  tried — ^high  duties,  over^ 
flowing  revenue,  extravagant  expenditures,  laige 
surpluses ;  in  a  word,  all  those  disastrous  con- 
sequences which  have  well  near  overthrown 
our  institutions,  and  involved  the  country  in 
its  present  difficulties.  The  influence  of  the 
institution,  the  known  principles  and  policy  of 
the  opposition,  and  the  utter  prostration  of  the 
administration  party,  and  the  i^orption  of 
our&  would  have  lea  to  these  results  be  cer- 
tumy  as  we  exist. 

"  1  now  appeal,  senators,  to  your  candor  and 
justice,  and  ask,  could  I,  having  all  these  conse- 
quences before  me,  with  my  known  opinions  and 
toat  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong,  and  to  which 
only  I  owe  fidelity,  have  acted  difierently  from 
what  I  did  7  Would  not  any  other  course  have 
justly  exposed  me  to  the  charge  of  having  aban- 
doned my  principles  and  party,  with  whi<Si  I  am 
now  accused  so  unjustly  ?  Nay,  would  it  not 
have  been  worse  than  folly— been  madness  in 
me,  to  have  taken  any  other  ?  And  yet,  the 
grounds  which  I  have  assumed  in  this  exposi- 
tion are  the  very  reasons  assigned  in  my  letter, 
and  which  the  senator  has  perverted  most  un- 
fairly and  unjustl]^  into  the  pitiful^  personal,  and 
selfish  reason,  wmch  he  has  attributed  to  me. 
Confirmative  of  what  I  say,  I  again  appeal  to 
the  record.  The  secretary  will  read  the  para- 
graph marked  in  my  Edgefield  letter,  to  which, 
I  presume,  the  senator  alluded. 

'^  [The  secretary  of  the  Senate  reads  :1 
" '  As  soon  as  I  saw  this  state  of  things,  I  cleaiiy 
perceived  that  a  very  important  question  was 
presented  for  our  determination,  which  we  were 
compelled  to  decide  forthwith — shall  we  con- 
tinue our  joint  attack  with  the  Nationals  on 
those  in  power,  in  the  new  position  whi<^  thej 
have  been  compelled  to  occupy  7  It  was  cdear, 
with  our  joint  forces,  we  could  utterly  over- 
throw and  demolish  them ;  but  it  was  not  less 
clear  that  the  victory  would  enure,  not  to  us. 
but  exclusively  to  the  benefit  of  our  allies  and 
their  cause.  They  were  the  most  numerous  and 
powerful,  and  the  point  of  a.ssault  on  the  posi- 
tion which  the  party  to  be  assaulted  had  taken 
in  relation  to  the  banks,  would  have  greatly 
strengthened  the  settled  principles  and  policy 
of  the  National  party,  and  weakened,  in  the 
same  degree,  ours.  They  are,  and  ever  have 
been,  the  decided  advocates  of  a  national  bank ; 
and  are  now  in  &vor  of  one  with  a  capital  so 
ample  as  to  be  sufficient  to  control  the  StAte  in- 
stitutions, and  to  regulate  the  currency  and  ex- 
changes of  the  country.  To  join  them  with 
their  avowed  object  in  the  attack  to  overthrow 
those  in  power,  on  the  ground  they  occupied 


ANNO  1W8.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


109 


•gainst  a  bank,  would,  of  coarse,  not  only  have 
placed  the  goyemment  and  country  in  their 
hands  without  opposition,  but  would  have  com- 
mitted us,  beyond  the  possibility  of  extrication, 
for  a  bank ;  and  absorbed  our  puty  in  the  ranks 
of  the  National  Republicans.  The  first  fruits 
of  the  Tictory  would  have  been  an  overshadow- 
ing National  Bank,  with  an  immense  capital, 
not  less  than  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  millions ; 
which  would  haye  centralized  the  currency  and 
exchanges,  and  with  them  the  commerce  and 
capital  of  the  country,  in  whatever  section  the 
h€«d  of  the  institution  might  be  placed.  The 
next  would  be  the  indissoluble  union  of  the 
political  opponents,  whose  principles  and  policy 
are  so  opposite  to  ours,  and  so  duigerous  to  our 
mstitutions,  as  well  as  oppressive  to  us.' 

^  I  now  ask,  is  there  any  thing  in  this  extract 
which  wiU  warrant  the  construction  that  the 
senator  has  attempted  to  force  on  it  1  Is  it  not 
manifest  that  the  expression  on  which  he  fixes, 
that  the  victory  would  enure,  not  to  us^  but 
exclusively  to  the  benefit  or  the  opposition, 
alludes  not  to  power  or  place,  but  to  principle 
and  policy  ?  Cfan  words  be  more  plain  ?  What 
then  becomes  of  all  the  aspersions  of  the  sena- 
tor, his  reflections  about  selfishness  and  the 
want  of  patriotism,  and  his  allusions  and  illus- 
trations to  give  them  force  and  effect  ?  They 
fall  to  the  ground  without  deserving  a  notice, 
with  his  poundless  accusation. 

^  But,  m  so  premeditated  and  indiscriminate 
an  attadE,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  my  mo- 
tives would  entirely  escape ;  and  we  accordingly 
find  the  senator  very  charitably  leaving  it  to 
time  to  disclose  my  motive  for  going  over. 
Leave  it  to  time  to  disclose  my  motive  for  going 
over !  I  who  have  changed  no  opinion,  aban- 
doned no  principle,  and  deserted  no  party :  I, 
who  have  stood  stilL  and  maintained  my  ground 
against  eveiy  difficulty,  to  be  told  that  it  is  left 
to  time  to  disclose  my  motive !  The  imputation 
sinks  to  the  earth  with  the  groundless  chuKe 
on  which  it  rests.  I  stamp  it  with  scorn  in  the 
dust  I  pick  up  the  dart  which  fell  harmless 
at  my  feet  I  hurl  it  back.  What  the  senator 
charges  on  me  uzgustly,  he  has  actually  done. 
He  went  over  on  a  memorable  occasion,  and  did 
not  leave  it  to  time  to  disclose  his  motive. 

"  The  senator  next  tells  us  that  I  bore  a  char- 
acter for  stem  fidelity ;  which  he  accompanied 
with  remarks  implvmg  that  I  had  forfeited  it 
by  my  course  on  the  present  occasion.  If  he 
means  by  stem  fidelity  a  devoted  attadiment  to 
duty  and  principle,  wmch  nothing  can  overcome, 
the  character  is,  indeed  a  high  one ;  and  I  trust, 
not  entirely  unmerited.  I  have,  at  least,  the 
authority  of  the  senator  himsc^  for  saying  that 
it  belonged  to  me  before  the  present  occasion, 
and  it  is,  of  course,  incumbent  on  him  to  show 
that  I  have  since  forfeited  it  He  will  find  the 
task  a  Herculean  one.  It  would  be  by  far  more 
easy  to  show  the  opposite  i  that,  instead  of  foi^ 
feiting^  I  haye  strengthened  my  title  to  the  char- 


acter ;  instead  of  abandoning  any  principles,  I 
have  firmly  adhered  to  them ;  and  that  too,  under 
the  most  ^piJling  difficulties.  K  I  were  to 
select  an  instance  in  the  whole  course  of  my 
life  on  which,  above  all  others,  to  rest  my  claim 
to  the  character  which  the  senator  attributed 
to  me,  it  would  be  this  very  one,  which  he  has 
selected  to  prove  that  I  have  forfeited  it. 

^  I  acted  with  the  full  knowledge  of  the  diffi- 
culties I  had  to  encounter,  and  the  responsibil- 
ity I  must  incur.  I  saw  a  great  and  powerful 
party,  probably  the  most  powerful  in  the  coun- 
try, eagerly  seizing  on  the  catastrophe  which 
had  befallen  the  currency,  and  the  consequent 
embarrassments  that  followed,  to  displace  those 
in  power,  against  whom  they  had  been  long 
contending.  I  saw  that,  to  stand  between  them 
and  their  object,  I  must  necessarily  incur  their 
deep  and  lasting  displeasure.  I  also  saw  that, 
to  maintain  the  administration  in  the  position 
they  had  taken — to  separate  the  government 
fi'om  the  banks,  I  would  draw  down  on  me, 
with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  southern 
banks,  the  whole  weight  of  that  extensive,  con- 
centrated, and  powerful  interest — the  most  pow- 
erfiil  by  far  of  any  in  the  whole  community ; 
and  thus  I  would  unite  against  me  a  combina- 
tion of  political  and  moneyed  influence  almost 
irresistible.  Nor  was  this  all.  I  could  not  but 
see  that,  however  pure  and  disinterested  my 
motives,  and  however  consistent  my  course 
with  all  I  had  ever  said  or  done,  I  woiQd  be  ex- 
posed to  the  yeiy  cbams  and  aspersions  which 
I  am  now  repelling,  ^e  ease  with  which  they 
could  be  made,  and  the  temptation  to  make 
them,  I  saw  were  too  great  to  be  resisted  by 
the  party  morality  of  the  day — as  groundless  as 
I  have  demonstrated  them.  But  there  was 
another  consequence  that  I  could  not  but  fore- 
see, far  more  painful  to  me  than  all  others.  I 
but  too  clearly  saw  that,  in  so  sudden  and  com- 
plex a  juncture,  called  on  as  I  was  to  decide  on 
my  course  instantiy,  as  it  were,  on  the  field  of 
battle,  without  consultation,  or  explaining  my 
reasons,  I  would  estrange  for  a  time  many  of 
my  political  fiiends,  who  had  passed  through 
with  me  so  many  trials  and  difficulties,  and  for 
whom  I  feel  a.brother's  love.  But  I  saw  before 
me  the  path  of  duty^  and,  though  rugged,  and 
hedged  on  all  sides  with  these  and  many  other 
difficulties,  I  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  take 
it  After  I  had  made  up  my  mind  as  to  my 
course,  in  a  conversation  with  a  friend  about 
the  responsibility  I  would  assume,  he  remarked 
that  my  own  State  might  desert  me.  I  replied 
that  it  was  not  impossible ;  but  the  result  has 
proved  that  I  under-estimated  the  intelligence 
and  patriotism  of  my  virtuous  and  noble  State. 
I  ask  her  pardon  for  the  distrust  implied  in  my 
answer;  but  I  ask  with  assurance  it  will  l)o 
granted,  on  the  grounds  I  shall  put  it — that,  in 
being  prepared  to  sacrifice  her  confidence,  as 
dear  to  me  as  light  and  life,  rather  than  disobey, 
on  this  great  question,  the  dictates  of  my  judg- 


110 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


ment  and  conscience,  I  proved  mjself  worthy 
of  being  her  representative. 

"But  if  the  senator,  in  attriboting  to  me 
stern  fidelity,  meant,  not  devotion  to  principle, 
but  to  party,  and  especially  the  party  of  winch 
he  is  so  prominent  a  member,  my  answer  is, 
'that  I  never  belonged  to  his  party,  nor  owed  it 
any  fidelity;  and,  of  course,  could  forfeit,  in 
reference  to  it,  no  character  for  fidelity.  It  is 
true,  we  acted  in  concert  against  what  we  be- 
lieved to  be  the  usurpations  of  the  Executive ; 
and  it  is  true  that,  during  the  time,  I  saw  much 
to  esteem  in  those  with  whom  I  acted,  and  con- 
tracted friendly  relations  with  many ;  which  I 
shall  not  be  the  first  to  foiget  It  is  also  true 
that  a  common  party  designation  was  applied 
to  the  opposition  in  the  aggregate — ^not,  how- 
ever, with  my  approbation ;  but  it  is  no  less 
true  that  it  was  universally  known  that  it  con- 
sisted of  two  distinct  parties,  dissimilar  in  prin- 
ciple and  policy,  except  in  relation  to  the  object 
for  which  they  nad  united :  the  national  repub- 
lican party,  and  the  portion  of  the  State  rights 
party  which  had  separated  from  the  administrar 
tion,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  departed  from 
the  true  principles  of  the  original  party.  That 
I  belonged  exclusively  to  that  detached  portion, 
and  to  neither  the  opposition  nor  administration 
pw-ty.  I  prove  by  my  explicit  declaration,  con- 
tained in  one  of  the  extracts  read  from  my 
speech  on  the  currency  in  1834.  That  the 
party  generally,  and  the  State  which  I  repre- 
sent in  part,  stood  aloof  from  both  of  the  par- 
ties, may  be  established  from  the  fiict  that  they 
refused  to  mingle  in  the  party  and  political  con- 
tests of  the  day.  My  State  withheld  her  elec- 
toral vote  in  two  successive  presidential  elections ; 
and,  rather  than  to  bestow  it  on  either  the  sen- 
ator from  Kentucky,  or  the  distinguished  citizen 
whom  he  opposed,  in  the  first  of  those  elec- 
tions, she  threw  her  vote  on  a  patriotic  citizen 
of  Virginia,  since  deceased,  of  her  own  politics ; 
but  who  was  not  a  candidate ',  and,  in  the  last, 
she  refused  to  give  it  to  the  worthy  senator 
from  Tennessee  near  me  (Judge  Whith),  though 
his  principles  and  views  of  policy  approach  so 
much  nearer  to  hers  than  that  of  the  party  to 
which  the  senator  from  Kentucky  belongs. 

"  And  here,  Mr.  President,  I  avail  myself  of 
the  opportunity  to  declare  my  present  political 
position,  so  that  there  may  be  no  mistake  here- 
after. I  belong  to  the  old  RepubUcan  State 
Rights  party  of  '98.  To  that,  and  that  alone,  I 
owe  fidehty,  and  by  that  I  shall  stand  through 
evexy  change,  and  in  spite  of  every  difficulty. 
Its  creed  is  to  be  found  in  the  Kentucl^  reso- 
lutions, and  Virginia  resolutions  and  report; 
and  its  policy  is  to  confine  the  action  of  this 
government  within  the  narrowest  limits  com- 
patible with  the  peace  and  security  of  these 
States,  and  the  objects  for  which  the  Union 
was  expressly  formed.  I,  as  one  of  that  party, 
shall  support  all  who  support  its  principles  ana 
policy,  and  oppose  all  who  oppose  tnem.     I 


have  given,  and  shall  continue  to  give,  the  ad> 
ministration  a  hearty  and  sincere  support  on 
the  great  question  now  under  discoasion,  be- 
cause I  regard  it  as  in  strict  conformity  to  our 
creed  and  policy ;  and  shall  do  every  thing  in 
my  power  to  sustain  them  under  the  great  re- 
sponsibility which  they  have  assumed.  But 
let  me  tell  those  who  are  more  interested  in 
sustaining  them  than  myself^  that  the  danger 
which  threatens  them  lies  not  here,  but  in 
another  quarter.  This  measure  will  tend  to 
uphold  them,  if  they  stand  fiist,  and  adhere  to 
it  with  fidelity.  But,  if  they  wish  to  know 
where  the  danger  is,  let  them  look  to  the  ^scal 
department  of  the  government.  I  said,  years 
ago,  that  we  were  committing  an  error  the  re- 
verse of  the  great  and  dangerous  one  that  was 
committed  in  1828,  and  to  which  we  owe  our 
present  difficulties,  and  all  we  have  since  expe- 
rienced. Then  we  raised  the  revenue  greatly, 
when  the  expenditures  were  about  to  be  re- 
duced by  the  discharge  of  the  public  debt ;  and 
now  we  have  doubled  the  disbursements,  when 
the  revenue  is  rapidly  decreasing;  an  error, 
which,  although  probably  not  so  fatal  to  the 
country,  will  prove,  if  immediate  and  vigorous 
measures  be  not  adopted,  far  more  so  to  those 
in  power. 

"  But  the  senator  did  not  confine  his  attack 
to  my  conduct  and  motives  in  reference  to  the 
present  question.  In  his  eagerness  to  weaken 
the  cause  I  support^  by  destroying  confidence  in 
me,  he  made  an  indiscriminate  attack  on  my  in- 
tellectual faculties,  which  he  characterized  ae 
metaphysical,  eccentric,  too  much  of  genius^  and 
too  little  common  sense ;  and  of  course  wanting 
a  sound  and  practical  judgment. 

"Mr.  President,  according  to  my  opinion, 
there  is  nothing  of  which  those  who  are  en- 
dowed with  superior  mental  faculties  ought  to 
be  more  cautious,  than  to  reproach  those  with 
their  deficiency  to  whom  Providence  has  bees 
less  liberal.  The  faculties  of  our  mind  arc  the 
immediate  gift  of  our  Creator,  for  which  we  are 
no  farther  responsible  than  for  their  proper  cul- 
tivation, according  to  our  opportunities,  and 
their  proper  application  to  control  and  regulate 
our  actions.  Thus  thinking.  I  trust  I  shall  be 
the  last  to  assume  superiority  on  my  part  or 
reproach  any  one  with  inferiority  on  his ;  but 
those  who  do  not  regard  the  rale,  when  ap- 
plied to  others,  cannot  expect  it  to  be  obserred 
when  applied  to  themselves.  The  critic  must 
expect  to  be  criticised ;  and  he  who  points  om 
the  faults  of  others,  to  have  his  own  points 
out. 

"  I  cannot  retort  on  the  senator  the  charge  of 
being  metaphysical.  I  cannot  accuse  him  of 
possessing  the  powers  of  analysis  and  generali- 
zation those  higher  faculties  of  the  mind  (called 
metapnysical  by  those  who  do  not  possess 
them),  which  decompose  and  resolve  into  their 
elements  the  complex  masses  of  ideas  that  exist 
in  the  world  of  mind — as  chemiBtry  does  the 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


Ill 


bodies  that  sorroazid  us  in  the  mftterial  world; 
and  ndthout  which  those  deep  and  hidden 
caases  which  are  in  constant  action,  and  pro- 
ducing such  mighty  changes  in  the  condition 
of  society,  would  operate  unseen  and  undetect- 
ed. The  absence  of  these  higher  qualities  of 
the  mind  is  conspicuous  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  the  senator's  public  life.  To  this  it 
may  be  traced  that  he  prefers  the  specious  to 
the  solid,  and  the  plausible  to  the  true.  To 
the  same  cause,  combined  with  an  ardent  tem- 
perament, it  is  owing  that  we  eyer  find  him 
mounted  on  some  popular  and  fayorite  measure, 
which  he  whips  along,  cheered  by  the  shouts  ot 
the  multitude,  and  neyer  dismounts  till  he  has 
rode  it  down.  Thus,  at  one  time,  we  find  him 
mounted  on  the  protectiye  system,  which  he 
rode  down;  at  another,  on  internal  improye- 
ment ;  and  now  he  is  mounted  on  a  bank,  whidi 
wUl  surely  share  the  same  htje,  unless  those 
who  are  immediately  interested  shall  stop  him 
in  his  headlong  career.  It  is  the  fault  of  his 
mind  to  seize  on  a  few  prominent  and  striking 
adyantages,  and  to  pursue  them  eagerly  with- 
out looking  to  consequences.  Thus,  in  the  case 
of  the  protectiye  system,  he  was  struck  with 
the  advantages  of  manufactures ;  and,  belieying 
that  high  duties  was  the  proper  mode  of  pro- 
tecting them,  he  pushed  forward  the  system, 
without  seeing  that  he  was  enriching  one  por- 
tion of  the  country  at  the  expense  of  the  other ; 
corrupting  the  one  and  alienating  the  other; 
and,  finally,  diyiding  the  community  into  two 
great  hostile  interests,  which  terminated  in  the 
oyerthrow  of  the  system  itself.  So,  now,  he 
looks  only  to  a  uniform  currency,  and  a  bank 
as  the  means  of  securing  it,  without  once  re- 
flecting how  far  the  banking  system  has  pro- 
gressed, and  the  difficulties  tiiat  impede  its  far- 
ther progress ;  that  banking  and  politics  are 
running  together  to  their  mutoal  destruction ; 
and  tlutt  the  only  possible  mode  of  saying  his 
fayorite  system  is  to  separate  it  fh)m  the  goy- 
enmient. 

"  To  the  defects  of  understanding,  which  the 
senator  attributes  to  me,  I  make  no  reply.  It 
is  for  others,  and  not  me,  to  determine  the  por- 
tion of  understanding  which  it  has  pleased  the 
Author  of  my  being  to  bestow  on  me.  It  is, 
howeyer,  fortunate  for  me,  that  the  standard  by 
which  I  shall  be  judged  is  not  the  false,  [ureju- 
diced,  and,  as  I  haye  shown,  unfounded  opinion 
which  the  senator  has  expressed ;  but  my  acts. 
They  furnish  materials,  neither  few  nor  scant, 
to  form  a  just  estimate  of  my  mental  facul- 
ties. I  have  now  been  more  than  twenty-six 
years  continuously  in  the  seryice  of  this  goy- 
emment,  in  yarious  stations,  and  haye  tidcen 
port  in  almost  all  the  great  questions  which 
haye  agitated  this  country  during  this  long  and 
important  period.  Throughout  the  whole  I 
haye  neyer  followed  eyents,  but  haye  taken  my 
stand  in  adyance,  openly  and  fireely  ayowing  my 
opinions  on  all  questionSi  and  leayi^g  it  to  time 


and  experience  to  condemn  or  approye  my 
course.  Thus  acting,  I  haye  often,  and  on  great 
questions,  separated  from  those  with  whom  I 
usually  acted,  and  if  I  am  really  so  defectiye  in 
sound  and  practical  judgment  as  the  senator 
represents,  the  proo^  if  to  be  found  any  where, 
must  be  found  in  such  instances,  or  where  I 
haye  acted  on  my  sole  responsibility.  Now,  I 
ask,  in  which  of  the  many  instances  of  the  kind 
is  such  proof  to  be  found  ?  It  is  not  my  inten- 
tion to  call  to  the  recollection  of  the  Senate  all 
such ;  but  that  you,  senators,  may  judge  for 
yourselyes,  it  is  due  in  justice  to  myself,  that  I 
should  suffgest  a  few  of  the  most  prominent^ 
which  at  uie  time  were  regarded  as  the  senator 
now  considers  the  present ;  and  then,  as  now, 
because  where  duty  is  inyolyed,  I  would  not 
submit  to  party  trammels. 

"  I  go  back  to  the  commencement  of  my  pub- 
lic life,  the  war  session,  as  it  was  usually  called, 
of  1812,  when  I  first  took  my  seat  in  the  other 
House,  a  young  man.  without  experience  to 
guide  me,  and  I  shall  select,  as  the  first  instance, 
the  Nayy.  At  that  time  the  administration  and 
the  party  to  which  I  was  strongly  attached  were 
decidedly  opposed  to  this  important  arm  of  ser- 
yice. It  was  considered  anti-republican  to  sup- 
port it ;  but  acting  with  my  then  distinguished 
colleague,  Mr.  Gheyes,  who  led  the  way,  I  did 
not  hesitate  to  giye  it  my  hearty  support,  re- 
gardless of  party  ties.  Does  this  instance  sus- 
tain the  charge  of  the  senator  ? 

^  The  next  I  shall  select  is  the  restrictiye 
system  of  that  day,  the  embargo,  the  non-im- 
portation and  non-intercourse  acts.  This,  too, 
was  a  party  measure  which  had  been  long  and 
warmly  contested,  and  of  course  the  lines  of 
party  well  drawn.  Young  and  inexperienced  as 
I  was,  I  saw  its  defects,  and  resolutely  opposed 
it,  almost  alone  of  my  party.  The  second  or 
third  speech  I  made,  after  I  took  my  seat,  was 
in  open  denunciation  of  the  system ;  and  I  may 
refer  to  the  groimds  I  then  assumed,  the  truth 
of  which  haye  been  confirmed  by  time  and  ex- 
perience, with  pride  and  confidence.  This  will 
scarcely  be  selected  by  the  senator  to  make  good 
hisduurge. 

"  I  pass  oyer  other  instances,  and  come  to 
Mr.  Dallas's  bank  of  1814-15.  That,  too,  was 
a  party  measure.  Banking  was  then  compar- 
atiyely  but  little  understood,  and  it  may  seem 
astonishing,  at  this  time,  that  such  a  project 
should  eyer  haye  receiyed  any  countenance 
or  support  It  proposed  to  create  a  bank  of 
$50,000,000,  to  consist  aknost  entirely  of  what 
was  called  then  the  war  stocks ;  that  is,  the  pub- 
lic debt  created  in  carrying  on  the  then  war.  It 
was  proyided  that  the  bank  should  not  pay 
specie  during  the  war,  and  for  three  years  after 
its  termination,  for  carrying  on  which  it  was  to 
lend  the  goyemment  the  funds.  In  plain  lan- 
guage, the  goyemment  was  to  borrow  back  its 
own  credit  from  the  bank,  and  pay  to  the  insti- 
tution six  per  cent,  for  its  use.     I  had  scarcely 


112 


THIBTT  YEARS'  VIEW. 


ever  before  seriously  thought  of  banks  or  bank- 
ing, but  I  clearly  saw  through  the  operation, 
and  the  danger  to  the  government  and  country ; 
and,  regardless  of  party  ties  or  denunciations,  I 
opposed  and  defeated  it  in  the  manner  I  ex- 
plained at  the  extra  session.  I  then  subjected 
myself  to  the  very  charge  which  the  senator 
now  makes  ;  but  time  has  done  me  justioe,  as  it 
will  in  the  present  instance. 

^'Passing  the  interrening  instances,  I  come 
down  to  my  administration  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, where  I  acted  on  my  own  judgment  and 
responsibility.  It  is  known  to  all,  that  the  de- 
paiiment,  at  that  time,  was  perfectly  disorgan- 
ized, with  not  much  less  than  $50,000,000  of 
outstanding  and  unsettled  accounts ;  and  the 
n^eatest  confusion  in  every  branch  of  service. 
Though  without  experience^  I  prepared,  shortly 
after  I  went  in,  the  bill  for  its  organization,  and 
on  its  passage  I  drew  up  the  body  of  rules  for 
carrying  the  act  into  execution ;  both  of  which  re- 
main substantially  unchanged  to  this  day.  After 
reducing  the  outstanding  accounts  to  a  few  mil- 
lions, and  introducing  order  and  accountability  in 
every  branch  of  service,  and  bringing  down  the 
expenditure  of  the  army  from  four  to  two  and  a 
half  millions  annually,  without  subtracting  a 
single  comfort  from  either  ofScer  or  soldier,  I 
left  the  department  in  a  condition  that  might 
well  be  compared  to  the  best  in  any  country. 
If  I  am  deficient  in  the  qualities  which  the  sena- 
tor attributes  to  me,  here  in  this  mass  of  details 
and  business  it  ought  to  be  discovered.  Will 
he  look  to  this  to  nuUce  good  his  charge? 

^'  From  the  war  department  I  was  transferred 
to  the  Chair  which  you  now  occupy.  How  I 
acquitted  mvself  in  the  discharge  of  its  duties,  I 
leave  it  to  the  body  to  decide,  without  adding  a 
word.  The  station,  from  its  leisure,  gave  me  a 
good  opportunity  to  study  the  genius  of  the 
prominent  measure  of  the  day,  called  then  the 
American  system ;  of  which  I  profited.  I  soon 
perceived  where  its  errors  lay,  and  how  it  would 
operate.  I  clearly  saw  its  desolating  effects  in 
one  section,  and  corrupting  influence  in  the 
other;  and  when  I  saw  iMt  it  could  not  be  ar- 
rested here,  I  fell  back  on  my  own  State,  and  a 
blow  was  given  to  a  system  destined  to  destroy 
our  institutions,  if  not  overthrown,  which 
brought  it  to  the  ground.  This  brings  me 
down  to  the  present  times,  and  where  passions 
and  prejudices  are  yet  too  strong  to  make  an 
appeal,  with  any  prospect  of  a  fur  and  impartial 
verdict  I  then  transfer  this,  and  all  my  subse- 
quent acts,  including  the  present^  to  the  tribunal 
of  posterity;  with  a  perfect  confidence  that 
nothing  will  be  found^  in  what  I  have  said  or 
done,  to  impeach  my  mtegrity  or  understand- 
ing. 

"  I  have  now,  senators,  repelled  the  attacks 
on  me.  I  have  settled  the  account  and  cancel- 
led the  debt  between  me  and  my  accuser.  I 
have  not  sought  this  controversy,  nor  have  I 
shunned  it  when  forced  on  me.   I  nave  acted  on 


the  defenuve,  and  if  it  is  to  continue,  whk^ 
rests  with  tiie  senator,  I  shall  throughout  con- 
tinue so  to  act.  I  know  too  well  the  advantage 
of  my  position  to  sui^nder  it  The  senator 
commenced  the  controversy,  and  it  is  but  right 
that  he  should  be  responsible  for  the  direction 
it  shall  hereafter  take.  Be  his  determination 
what  it  may,  I  stand  prepared  to  meet  him.^ 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

DEBATE  BETWEEN  MB.  CHAT  AND  MB.  CAUaOUN : 
BEJOINDEB8  BT  EACH. 

Mr.  Clay  : — "  As  to  the  personal  part  of  the 
speech  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina,  I 
must  take  the  occasion  to  say  that  no  man  is 
more  sincerely  anxious  to  avoid  aU  personal  con- 
troversy than  myself.  And  I  may  confidently 
appeal  to  the  whole  course  of  my  life  for  the 
confirmation  of  that  disposition.  No  man  cher- 
ishes less  than  I  do  feelings  of  resentment; 
none  fo^ts  or  forgives  an  injury  sooner  than 
I  do.  'uie  duty  which  I  had  to  perform  in 
animadverting  upon  the  public  conduct  and 
course  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  was 
painful  in  the  extreme ;  but  it  was,  neverthel^s, 
a  public  duty ;  and  I  shrink  from  the  performance 
of  no  dutj;  required  at  my  hands  by  my  conntry. 
It  was  painful,  because  I  had  long  served  in  the 
public  councils  with  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina,  admired  his  genius,  and  for  a  great 
while  had  been  upon  terms  of  intimacy  with 
him.  Throughout  my  whole  acquaintance  with 
him,  I  have  constantly  strugjled  to  think  well 
of  him,  and  to  ascribe  to  nun  public  virtues. 
Even  after  his  famous  summerset  at  the  extra 
session,  on  more  than  one  occasion  I  defended 
his  motives  when  he  was  assailed;  and  insisted 
that  it  was  uncharitable  to  attribute  to  him 
others  than  those  which  he  himself  avowed. 
This  I  continued  to  do,  until  I  read  this  most 
extraordinary  and  exceptionable  letter :  [Here 
Mr.  Clay  held  up  and  exhibited  to  the  Senate 
the  Edgefield  letter,  dated  at  Fort  Hill,  Novem- 
ber 3,  1837 :]  a  letter  of  which  I  cannot  speak 
in  merited  terms,  without  a  departure  from  the 
respect  which  I  owe  to  the  Senate  and  to  myself 
When  I  read  that  letter,  sir.  its  unblushmg 
avowals,  and  its  unjust  reproacnes  cast  upon  my 
ftiends  and  myself,  I  was  most  reluctantly  com- 
pelled to  change  my  opinion  of  the  honorable 
senator  from  South  Carolina.  One  so  distin- 
guished as  he  is,  cannot  expect  to  be  indulged 
with  speaking  as  he  pleases  of  others,  without 
a  reciprocal  privilege.  He  cannot  suppose  that 
he  may  set  to  the  right  or  the  left,  cut  in  and 
out,  and  chasse,  among  principles  and  parties 
as  often  as  he  pleases,  without  animadversion. 
I  did,  indeed,  understand  the  senator  to  say,  in 


ANKO  18S8.    MABTIN  VAN  BUBKK,  PRESIDElTr. 


113 


his  fonner  epeech,  that  we,  the  whigs,  were  un- 
wiae  and  unpcttrioiic  in  not  uniting  with  him 
fn  snpporting  the  bill  under  consideration.  But 
in  tbit  Edgefield  letter,  among  the  motives 
which  he  assigns  for  kaving  us,  I  understand 
him  to  declare  that  he  could  not  'back  and  sus- 
tain those  in  such  oppositioiL  in  whose  wisdom, 
firmness,  and  patriotism,  I  nare  no  reason  to 
confide.' 

^  After  haying  written  and  published  to  the 
world  such  a  letter  as  that,  and  after  what  has 
fallen  from  the  senator,  in  the  progress  of  this 
debate,  towards  my  political  friends,  does  he 
imagine  that  he  can  prsuade  himself  and  the 
country  that  he  really  occupies,  on  this  occtr 
sion,  a  defensiye  attitude?  In  that  letter  he 
says: 

"  *  I  detrly  saw  that  oar  bold  and  vlffOTOiia  attaeka  had  mada 
a  deep  and  raooeMfal  Impreeslon.  State  interpodtion  bad 
orertbrowD  tbe  proteettTe  tarU^  and  with  it  the  American 

Sitem,  and  pot  a  stop  to  the  oongreflelonal  oaoivation ;  and 
e  Joint  attacks  of  oar  party,  and  that  of  oar  old  opponents, 
the  national  repnblieans,  bad  effsetoallT  broa^ht  down  tbe 
power  of  tbe  Executive,  and  arrested  lla  encroachmenta  for 
tbe  present  It  was  for  that  paipuee  we  had  united.  Trne 
to  onr  principle  of  opposition  to  tho  encroachment  of  power, 
from  whatever  quarter  it  might  come,  we  did  not  bealtate, 
after  overthrowing  the  protective  syatem,  and  arresting  k'gis- 
lative  usurpation,  to  join  the  authors  of  that  sjatem,  in  order 
to  arrest  tbe  eneroafChmentB  of  the  Ezoootive,  although  we 
dUTered  aa  widelj  as  the  polea  on  almost  every  other  qcestion, 
and  regarded  the  usurpation  of  the  Executive  but  as  a  neces- 
may  consequence  of  the  principles  and  poli<7  of  our  new 


**  State  interposition  I — ^that  is  as  I  understand 
the  senator  firom  South  Carolina ;  nullification, 
he  asserts,  overthrew  the  protectiye  tariff  and 
the  American  system.  And  can  that  senator, 
knowing  what  he  knows,  and  what  I  know, 
deliberately  make  such  an  assertion  here?  I 
bad  heard  similar  boasts  before,  but  did  not 
rqgard  them,  until  I  saw  them  coupled  in  this 
letter  with  the  imputation  of  a  purpose  on  the 
part  of  my  friends  to  disr^prd  tne  compromise, 
andreviye  the  high  tariff  Nullification,  Mr. 
President,  oyerthrew  the  protective  policy  ! 
No,  sir.  The  compromise  was  not  extorted  by 
tbe  terror  of  nullification.  Among  other  more 
important  motives  that  influenced  its  pissage, 
it  was  a  compassionate  concession  to  the  impru- 
dence and  impotency  of  nullification  I  The  dan- 
ger from  nullification  itself  excited  no  more  ap- 
prehension than  would  be  felt  by  seeing  a  regi- 
ment of  a  thousand  boys,  of  five  or  six  years  of 
age,  decorated  in  brilliant  uniforms,  with  their 
gaudy  plumes  and  tiny  muskets,  marching  up 
to  assault  a  corps  of  50^000  grenadiers,  six  feet 
high.  At  the  commencement  of  the  session  of 
1832,  the  senator  firom  South  Carolina  was  in 
any  condition  other  than  that  of  dictating  terms. 
Those  of  us  who  were  then  here  must  recollect 
well  his  haggard  looks  and  his  anxious  and  de- 
pressed countenance.  A  highly  estimable  friend 
of  mine,  Mr.  J.  M.  Clayton,  of  Delaware,  alludr 
ing  to  the  possibility  of  a  rupture  with  South 
Carolina^  and  declarations  of  President  Jackson 
with  respect  to  certain  distingiiiBhed  individuals 
Vol.  II.— 8 


whom  he  had  denounced  and  proscribed,  sud 
to  me,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  referring  to 
the  senator  from  South  Carolina  and  some  ol 
his  colleagues,  ^  They  are  clever  fellows,  and  it 
will  never  do  to  let  old  Jackson  hang  them.'* 
Sir,  this  disclosure  is  extorted  from  me  by  the 
senator. 

^  So  &r  from  nullification  having  overthrown 
the  protective  policy,  in  ass&ting  to  the  cooh 
promise,  it  expressly  sanctioned  the  constitu- 
tional power  which  it  had  so  strongly  contro- 
verted, and  perpetuated  it.  There  is  protection 
fh>m  one  end  to  the  other  in  the  compromiaa 
act ;  modified  and  limited  it  is  true,  but  protec- 
tion nevertheless.  There  is  protection,  adequate 
and  abundant  protection,  until  the  year  1842; 
and  protection  indefinitely  beyond  it.  Until 
that  year,  the  biennial  reduction  of  duties  it 
slow  and  moderate,  such  as  was  perfectly  satis- 
factory to  tlie  manufacturers.  Now,  if  the  sys- 
tem were  altogether  unconstitutional,  as  had 
been  contended,  how  could  the  senator  vote  for 
a  bill  which  continued  it  for  nine  years  1  Then, 
beyond  that  period,  there  is  the  provision  for 
cash  duties,  home  valuations,  a  long  and  liberal 
list  of  free  articles,  carefully  made  out  by  my 
friend  from  Rhode  Island  (Mr.  Knight),  ex- 
pressly for  the  benefit  of  the  nwnufacturers ;  and 
the  power  of  discrimination,  reserved  also  for 
their  benefit ;  within  the  maximum  rate  of  duty 
fixed  in  the  act.  In  the  consultations  between 
the  senator  and  myself  in  respect  to  the  com- 
promise act,  on  every  point  upon  which  I  in- 
sisted he  gave  way.  He  was  for  a  shorter  term 
than  nine  years,  and  more  rapid  reduction.  I 
insisted,  and  he  yielded.  He  was  for  fifteen  in- 
stead of  twen^  per  cent,  as  the  maximum  duty ; 
but  yielded.  Ue  was  against  any  discrimination 
within  the  limited  range  of  duties  for  the  benefit 
of  the  manu&cturers ;  but  consented.  To  the 
last  he  protested  agamst  home  valuation,  but 
finally  gave  way.  Such  is  the  compromise  act ; 
and  the  Senate  will  see  with  what  propriety  the 
senator  can  assert  that  nullification  had  over- 
thrown the  protectiye  tariff  and  the  American 
system.  Nullification !  which  asserted  the  ex- 
traordinary principle  that  one  of  twenty-four 
members  of  a  confederacy,  by  its  separate  action, 
could  subvert  and  set  aside  the  expressed  will 
of  the  whole  !  Nullification  !  a  strange,  imprac- 
ticable, incomprehensible  doctrine,  that  partakes 
of  the  character  of  the  metaphysical  school  of 
German  philosophy,  or  would  be  worthy  of  the 
puzzling  theological  controversies  of  the  middle 
ages. 

^  No  one,  Mr.  President,  in  the  commence- 
ment of  the  protective  policy^  ever  supposed 
that  it  was  to  be  perpetual.  We  hoped  and  be- 
lieved that  temporary  protection  extended  to 
our  in&nt  manunctures,  would  bring  them  up, 
and  enable  them  to  withstand  competition  with 
those  of  Enrol  3.  We  thoueht,  as  the  wise 
French  minister  did,  who,  when  urged  by  a 
British  minister  to  consent  to  the  equal  intio* 


114 


THIRTY  TEAKS'  VIEW. 


duction  into  the  two  countries  of  their  respective 
productions,  replied  that  free  trade  might  be 
rery  well  for  a  country  whose  mano&ctures 
had  reached  perfection,  but  was  not  entirely 
adapted  to  a  countiy  wnich  wished  to  build  up 
its  manu&ctures.  If  the  protective  policy  were 
entirely  to  cease  in  1842,  it  would  have  existed 
twenty-six  years  from  1816,  or  18  from  1824 ; 

guite  as  long  as.  at  either  of  those  periods,  its 
iends  supposea  might  be  necessary.  But  it 
does  not  cease  then^  and  I  sincerely  hope  that 
the  provisions  oontamed  in  the  compromise  act 
for  its  benefit  beyond  that  period,  will  be  found 
sufficient  for  the  preservation  of  all  our  interest- 
ing manufactures.  For  one,  I  am  willing  to  ad- 
here to,  and  abide  by  the  compromise  in  all  its 
provisions,  present  and  prospective,  if  its  fair 
operation  is  undisturbed.  The  Senate  well 
knows  that  I  have  been  constantly  in  favor  of  a 
strict  and  faithful  adherence  to  the  compromise 
act.  I  have  watched  and  defended  it  on  all 
occasions.  I  desire  to  see  it  fiiithfully  and  in- 
violably maintained.  The  senator,  too,  from 
South  Carolina)  alleging  that  the  South  were 
the  weaker  party,  has  hitherto  united  with  me 
in  sustaining  it.  Nevertheless,  he  has  left  us, 
as  he  tells  us  in  his  Edgefield  letter,  because  he 
apprehended  that  our  principles  would  lead  us 
to  the  revival  of  a  high  tariff. 

"  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  proceeds, 
in  his  Edgefield  letter,  to  say : 

***I  dearly  percetyed  that  a  yery  important  qnestlon  was 
presented  for  oar  determination,  which  we  were  compelled 
to  decide  forthwith :  ahall  we  contlnne  oar  Joint  attack  with 
the  natlonala  on  thoee  In  power,  in  the  new  positlun  which 
thej  haye  heen  compelled  to  occnpj  ?  It  was  clear  that,  with 
our  Joint  forces,  we  could  utterly  oyerthrow  and  demolish 
theoL  But  it  was  not  less  clear  that  iAs  natatory  teould 
«nt*r«  not  to  iM,  bat  excltaively  to  the  benefit  of  oar  allies 
and  their  caose.' 

"  Thus  it  appears  that  in  a  common  struggle 
for  the  benefit  of  our  whole  country,  the  sena- 
tor was  calculating  upon  the  party  advantages 
which  would  result  from  success.  He  quit  us 
because  he  apprehended  that  he  and  his  party 
would  be  absorbed  by  us.  Well,  what  is  to  be 
their  fate  in  his  new  alliance?  Is  there  no 
absorption  there?  Is  there  no  danger  that  the 
senator  and  his  party  will  be  absorbed  by  the 
administration  party?  Or  does  he  hope  to  ab- 
sorb that?  Another  motive  avowed  in  the 
letter,  for  his  desertion  of  us,  is,  that  ^  it  would 
also  give  us  the  chance  T)f  efiecting  what  is  still 
more  important  to  us,  the  union  of  the  entire 
South.'  What  sort  of  an  union  of  the  South 
does  the  senator  wish?  Is  not  the  South 
already  united  as  a  part  of  the  common  con- 
federacy ?  Does  he  want  any  other  union  of  it  ? 
I  wish  he  would  explicitly  state.  I  should  be 
glad,  also,  if  he  would  define  what  he  means  by 
the  South.  He  sometimes  talks  of  the  planta- 
tion or  staple  States.  Mairland  is  partly  a 
staple  State.  Virginia  and  North  Carolina 
more  so.  And  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  have 
also  staple  productions.    Are  all  these  States 


parts  of  kia  Sonth  ?  I  fear,  Mr.  President^  that 
the  political  geography  of  the  senator  compre- 
hends a  much  uurger  South  than  that  South 
which  is  the  object  of  his  particular  solicitude ; 
and  that,  to  find  the  latter,  we  should  have  to 
go  to  South  Carolina;  ana,  upon  our  arrival 
there,  trace  him  to  Fort  Hill.  This  is  the  dis- 
interested senator  frt>m  South  Carolina ! 

"  But  he  has  left  no  party,  and  joined  no 
ptatj !  No !  None.  With  the  daily  evidences 
before  us  of  his  frequent  association,  counselling 
and  acting  with  the  other  party,  he  would  tax 
our  credulity  too  much  to  require  us  to  believe 
that  he  has  formed  no  connection  with  it.  He 
may  stand  upon  his  reserved  rights ;  but  they 
must  be  mentally  reserved,  for  they  are  not  ob- 
vious to  the  Senses.  Abandoned  no  party? 
Why  this  letter  proclaims  his  having  quitted  ua, 
and  assigns  his  reasons  for  doing  it;  one  of 
which  is,  that  we  are  in  favor  of  that  national 
bank  which  the  senator  himself  has  sustained 
about  twenty-four  years  of  the  twenty-seven 
that  he  has  been  in  public  life.  Whatever  im- 
pression the  senator  may  endeavor  to  make 
without  the  Senate  upon  the  country  at  large, 
no  man  within  the  Senate,  who  has  eyes  to  see^ 
or  ears  to  hear,  can  mistake  his  present  position 
and  party  connection.  If,  in  the  speech  which 
I  addressed  to  the  Senate  on  a  former  day, 
there  had  been  a  single  fiict  stated  which  was 
not  perfectly  true,  or  an  inference  drawn  which 
was  not  fully  warranted,  or  any  description  of 
his  situation  which  was  incorrect,  no  man  would 
enjoy  greater  pleasure  than  I  should  do  in  recti- 
fying the  error.  If,  in  the  picture  which  I  por- 
trayed of  the  senator  and  his  course^  there  be 
any  thing  which  can  justly  give  him  dissatisfiio- 
tion,  he  must  look  to  the  original  and  not  to  the 
punter.  The  conduct  of  an  eminent  public  man 
is  a  fiur  subject  for  exposure  and  animadversion. 
When  I  addressed  the  Senate  before,  I  had  jusi 
perused  this  letter.  I  recollected  all  its  re^ 
preaches  and  imputations  against  us,  and  those 
which  were  made  or  impli^  in  the  speech  of 
the  honorable  senator  were  also  fresh  in  my 
memoiy.  Does  he  expect  to  be  allowed  to  cast 
such  imputations,  and  make  such  reproaches 
against  others  without  retaliation  ?  .  Holding 
my^lf  amenable  for  my  public  conduct,  I  choose 
to  animadvert  upon  his,  and  upon  that  of  others, 
whenever  circumstances,  in  my  judgment,  ren* 
der  it  necessary ;  and  I  do  it  under  all  juist  ne^ 
sponsibility  which  belongs  to  the  exercise  of 
such  a  privilege. 

"  The  senator  has  thought  proper  to  ezerdst 
a  corresponding  privil^e  toinards  myself;  and, 
without  being  very  specific,  has  taken  upon 
himself  to  impute  to  me  the  chai^  of  going 
over  upon  some  occasion,  and  that  in  a  manner 
which  left  my  motive  no  matter  of  conjecture 
If  the  senator  mean  to  allude  to  the  stale  and 
refuted  calumny  of  Qeorge  Kremer,  I  assure 
him  I  can  hear  it  without  the  slightest  emo- 
tion ;  and  if  he  can  find  any  fragment  of  that 


AJSmSO  18S8.    MABTIN  YAS  BUREK,  PRESIDENT 


116 


rent  banner  to  oorer  his  own  aberrationB, 
he  is  perfectlj  at  liberty  to  enjoy  all  the  shelter 
which  it  affords.  In  my  case  there  was  no 
going  over  about  it ;  I  was  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatiyes,  and  had  to  give  a  yote 
for  one  of  three  candidates  for  the  presidency. 
Mr.  Crawford's  unfortunate  physical  condition 
placed  him  out  of  the  question.  The  choice  was, 
*  therefore,  limited  to  the  venerable  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts,  or  to  the  distinguished  in- 
habitant of  the  hermitage.  I  could  give  but  one 
yote ;  and,  accordii^ly,  as  I  stated  on  a  former 
occasion,  t  gave  the  vote  which,  before  I  left 
Kentucky,  I  communicated  to  my  colleague 
[Mr.  Crittenden],  it  was  my  intention  to  give 
in  the  contingency  which  happened.  I  have 
never  for  one  moment  regretted  the  vote  I  then 
gave.  It  is  true,  that  the  legislature  of  Ken- 
tucky had  requested  the  representatives  from 
that  State  to  vote  for  General  Jackson ;  but  my 
own  immediate  constituents,  I  knew  well,  were 
opposed  to  his  election,  and  it  was  their  will, 
and  not  that  of  the  legislature,  according  to 
every  principle  applicable  to  the  doctrine  of  in- 
structions, which  I  was  to  deposit  in  the  ballot^ 
box.  It  is  their  glory  and  my  own  never  to 
have  concurred  in  the  elevation  of  General 
Jackson.  They  ratified  and  confirmed  my  vote, 
and  every  representative  that  they  have  sent  to 
Congress  since,  including  my  fHend,  the  present 
member,  has  concurred  with  me  in  opposition 
to  the  election  and  administration  of  General 
Jackson. 

^  If  my  information  be  not  entirely  incorrect, 
and  there  was  any  going  over  in  the  presiden- 
tial election  which  terminated  in  February, 
1825,  the  senator  from  South  Carolina — and  not 
I — ^went  over.  I  have  understood  that  the 
senator,  when  he  ceased  to  be  in  favor  of  him- 
self,— that  is,  after  the  memorable  movement 
made  in  Philadelphia  b^  the  present  minister  to 
Russia  (Mr.  Dallas!  withdrawing  his  name  from 
the  canvass,  was  the  known  supporter  of  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Adams.  What  motives  induced  him 
afterwards  to  unite  in  the  election  of  General 
Jackson,  I  know  not.  It  is  not  my  habit  to 
impute  to  others  uncharitable  motives,  and  I 
leave  the  senator  to  settle  that  account  with  his 
own  conscience  and  his  country.  No,  sir,  I 
have  no  reproaches  to  make  myself  and  feel 
perfectly  invulnerable  to  any  attack  from  others, 
on  account  of  any  part  which  I  took  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1825.  And  I  look  back  with  entire  and 
conscious  satisfaction  upjon  the  whoie  course  of 
the  arduous  administration  which  ensued. 

"  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  thinks  it 
to  be  my  misfortune  to  be  always  riding  some 
hobby,  and  that  I  stick  to  it  till  I  ride  it  down. 
I  think  it  is  his  never  to  stick  to  one  long 
enough.  He  is  like  a  courier  who,  riding  from 
post  to  post,  with  relays  of  fresh  horses,  when 
he  changes  his  steed,  seems  to  forget  alt<^ther 
the  last  which  he  had  mounted.  Now,  it  is  a 
part  of  my  pride  and  pleasure  to  say,  that  I 


never  in  my  life  changed  my  detiberate  opinion 
upon  any  great  question  of  national  policy  but 
once,  and  that  was  twenty-two  years  ago,  on 
the  question  of  the  power  to  establish  a  bank 
of  the  United  States.  The  change  was  wrought 
by  the  sad  and  disastrous  experience  of  the 
want  of  such  an  institution,  growing  out  of  the 
calamities  of  war.  It  was  a  change  which  I 
made  in  common  with  Mr.  Madison,  two  gov- 
ernors of  Virginia^  and  the  great  body  of  the 
republican  party,  to  which  I  have  ever  be- 
longed. 

"•  The  distinguished  senator  sticks  long  to  no 
hobby.  He  was  once  gayly  mounted  on  that 
of  internal  improvements.  We  rode  that  double 
— ^the  senator  before,  and  I  behind  him.  He 
quietly  slipped  off,  leaving  me  to  hold  the  bridle. 
He  introduced  and  carri^  through  Congress  in 
1816,  the  bill  setting  apart  the  large  Iwnus  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  for  internal  iut- 
provements.  His  speech,  delivered  on  that  oc- 
casion, does  not  intimate  the  smallest  question 
as  to  the  constitutional  power  of  the  govern- 
ment, but  proceeds  upon  the  assumption  of  its 
being  incontestable.  When  he  was  subse- 
quently in  the  department  of  war,  he  made  to 
Congress  a  brilliant  report,  sketching  as  splen- 
did and  magnificent  a  scheme  of  internal  im- 
provements for  the  entire  nation,  as  ever  was 
presented  to  the  admiration  and  wonder  of 
mankind. 

*^  No,  sir,  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  is 
free  from  all  reproach  of  sticking  to  hobbies. 
He  was  for  a  bank  of  the  United  States  in  1816. 
He  proposed,  supported,  and  with  his  accus- 
tomed ability,  carried  through  the  charter.  He 
sustained  it  upon  its  admitted  grounds  of  con- 
stitutionality, of  which  he  never  once  breathed 
the  expression  of  a  doubt.  During  the  twenty 
years  of  its  continuance  no  scruple  ever  escaped 
from  him  as  to  the  power  to  create  it.  And  in 
1834,  when  it  was  about  to  expire,  he  delibe- 
rately advocated  the  renewal  of  its  term  for 
twelve  years  more.  How  profound  he  may 
suppose  the  power  of  analysis  to  be,  and  what^ 
ever  opinion  he  may  entertain  of  his  own  meta- 
physics faculty, — can  he  imagine  that  any 
plain,  practical,  common  sense  man  can  ever 
comprehend  how  it  is  constitutional  to  prolong 
an  unconstitutional  bank  for  twelve  years  ?  He 
may  have  all  the  speeches  he  has  ever  delivered 
read  to  us  in  an  audible  voice  by  the  secretary, 
and  call  upon  the  Senate  attentively  to  hear 
them,  beginning  with  his  speech  in  fiivor  of  a 
bank  of  the  United  States  in  1816,  down  to  his 
speech  against  a  bank  of  the  United  States, 
delivered  the  other  day,  and  he  will  have  made 
no  progress  in  his  task.  I  do  not  speak  this  in 
any  unkind  spirit,  but  I  will  tell  the  honorable 
senator  when  he  will  be  consistent.  He  will 
be  so,  when  he  resolves  henceforward,  during 
the  residue  of  his  life,  never  to  pronounce  the 
word  again.  We  began  our  public  career 
nearly  together ;  we  remained  together  through- 


116 


THIR1T  YBAB8*  VIEW. 


out  the  war  and  down  to  the  peace.  We  agreed 
as  to  a  bank  of  the  United  States — as  to  a  pro- 
tective  tariff— as  to  internal  improTements — 
and  lately,  as  to  those  arbitrary  and  Tiolent 
measures  which  characterized  the  administrar 
tion  of  General  Jackson.  No  two  prominent 
public  men  erer  agreed  better  together  in  re- 
spect to  important  measures  of  national  policy. 
We  concur  now  in  nothing.  Te  separate  ror 
ever." 

Mr.  Calhoun.  ^*  The  senator  from  Kentucky 
says  that  the  sentiments  contained  in  my  Edge- 
field letter  then  met  his  yiew  for  the  first  time, 
and  that  he  read  that  document  with  equal  pain 
and  amazement.  Now  it  happens  that  I  ex- 
pressed these  self-same  sentunents  just  as 
strongly  in  1834,  in  a  speech  which  was  receiyed 
with  unbounded  applause  by  that  gentleman's 
own  party;  and  of  which  a  vast  number  of 
copies  were  published  and«circulated  through- 
out the  United  States. 

"  But  the  senator  tells  us  that  he  is  among 
the  most  constant  men  in  this  world.  I  am 
not  in  the  habit  of  charging  others  with  incon- 
sistency ;  but  one  thing  I  will  say,  that  if  the 
sentlemaa  has  not  chuiged  his  principleSj  he 
has  most  certainly  chan^  his  company;  for, 
though  he  boaste  of  setting  out  in  public  life  a 
republican  of  the  school  of  '98,  he  is  now  sur- 
rounded by  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
members  of  the  old  federal  party.  I  do  not  de- 
sire to  disparage  that  party.  I  always  respected 
them  as  men,  though  I  belieyed  their  political 
principles  to  be  wrong.  Now,  either  the  gen- 
tleman's associates  have  changed,  or  he  has ; 
for  t^y  are  now  together,  though  belonging 
formerly  to  different  and  opposing  parties — ^par- 
tie&  as  eyery  one  knows,  directly  opposed  to 
each  other  in  policy  and  principles. 

^  He  says  I  was  in  fiiyor  of  the  tariff  of  1816, 
and  took  the  lead  in  ite  support  He  is  cer- 
tainly mistaken  again.  It  was  in  charge  of  my 
oollel^^e  and  friend,  Mr.  Lowndes,  chairman 
then  of  the  committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  as 
a  reTOpue  measure  only.  I  took  no  other  part 
whatever  but  to  deliver  an  off-hand  speech,  at 
the  request  of  a  friend.  The  question  of  pro- 
tection, as  a  constitutional  question,  was  not 
touched  at  alL  It  was  not  made,  if  my  memo- 
ry serves  me,  for  some  years  after.  Am  to  pro- 
tection, I  believe  little  of  it,  except  what  all  ad- 
mit was  incidental  to  revenue,  was  contained  in 
the  act  of  1816.  As  to  my  views  in  regard  to 
protection  at  that  early  period,  I  refer  to  my 
remarks  in  1813,  when  I  opposed  a  renewal 
(^  the  non-importation  act,  expressly  on  the 
ground  of  ite  giving  too  mudi  protection  to  the 
manu&ctorers.  But  while  I  declared,  in  my 
place,  that  I  was  opposed  to  it  on  that  ground, 
I  at  the  same  time  stated  that  I  would  go  as  fiur 
as  I  could  with  propriety,  when  peace  return- 
ed, to  protect  the  capital  which  the  war  and  the 
extreme  policy  of  the  government  had  turned 
into  that  chaxmeL    T&  senator  refers  to  my 


report  on  internal  improvement,  when  I  wis 
secretary  of  war ;  but.  as  usual  with  him,  for- 
gete  to  tell  that  I  maae  it  in  obedience  to  a  res- 
olution of  the  House,  to  which  I  was  bound  to 
answer,  and  that  I  'expressly  stated  I  did  not 
involve  the  constitutional  question;  ofwhidi 
the  senator  may  now  satisfy  himself  if  he  will 
read  the  ktter  part  of  the  report  Ab  to  the 
bonus  bill,  it  grew  out  of  the  reoommeDdatioD 
of  Mr.  Madison  in  his  last  message;  and  al- 
though I  proposed  that  the  bonus  should  be 
set  apart  for  the  purpose  of  internal  improve- 
ment, leaving  it  to  be  determined  tbereailer, 
whether  we  had  the  power,  or  the  coDBtitution 
should  be  amended,  in  oonfermity  to  Mr.  Madi- 
son's recommendation.  I  did  not  touch  the 
question  to  what  extent  Congress  might  pos- 
sess the  power ;  and  when  requested  to  insert 
a  direct  recognition  of  the  power  by  some  of 
the  leading  members,  I  refused,  expressly  oa 
the  ground  that,  though  I  believed  it  existed,  I 
had  not  made  up  my  mind  how  fkr  it  extended 
As  to  the  bill,  it  was  perfectly  oonstitutioDsl 
in  my  opinion  then,  and  which  still  remaiBS 
unchanged,  to  set  aside  the  fund  proposed,  and 
with  the  object  intended,  but  which  could  not 
be  used  without  specific  appropriations  there- 
after. 

^*  In  my  opening  remarks  to-day,  I  said  the 
senator's  speech  was  remarkable,  both  for  its 
omissions  and  mistakes ;  and  the  senator  infers, 
with  his  usual  inaccuracy,  that  I  alluded  toi 
difference  between  his  spoken  and  printed 
speech,  and  that  I  was  answering  the  latter. 
In  this  he  was  mistaken ;  I  hardly  ever  reads 
speech,  but  reply  to  what  is  said  here  in  de- 
bate. I  know  no  other  but  the  speech  deliver 
ed  here. 

"As  to  the  argumente  of  each  of  us,  I  «° 
ynlling  to  leave  them  to  the  judgment  of  the 
countn^ :  his  speech  and  argumente,  and  mine, 
will  be  read  with  the  closer  attention  and  deeper 
interest  in  consequence  of  this  day's  occurrence. 
It  is  aU  I  ask." 

Mr.  Clay.  "  It  is  very  true  that  the  Bcnator 
had  on  other  occasions,  besides  his  Edgefield 
letter,  claimed  that  the  influence  arising  ff^ 
the  interference  of  his  own  Stete  had  effected 
the  tariff  compromise.  Mr.  G.  had  so  stated 
the  fact  when  up  before.  But  in  the  Edg^ 
field  letter  the  senator  took  new  ground,  he  de- 
nounced those  with  whom  he  had  been  acting 
as  persons  in  whom  he  could  have  no  confi- 
dence, and  imputed  to  them  the  design  of  i^ 
newing  a  high  tariff  and  patronising  extrava- 
gant expenditures,  as  the  natural  consequenc^ 
of  the  esteblishment  of  a  bank  of  the  United 
States,  and  had  presented  this  as  a  reason  for 
lus  recent  course.  When,  sidd  Mr.  C,  I  saw  a 
charge  like  this,  together  yrith  an  imputation 
of  unworthy  motives,  and  all  this  deliberately 
written  and  published,  I  could  not  but  feel  very 
differently  from  what  1  should  have  done  under 
a  mere  casual  remark. 


ANNO  1888.    UABLTa  VAN  BUREN,  PBEBIDSNT. 


117 


'*  But  the  BeDfttor  sAys,  that  if  I  ha^e  not 
changed  prindples,  I  haTe  at  least  got  into 
BtraDge  company.  Why  leailj.  Mr.  Pinesident, 
.  the  gentleman  has  so  recently  oianged  his  rela- 
tions  that  he  seems  to  haye  forgotten  into 
what  company  he  has  fallen  himselE  He  says 
that  some  of  my  friends  once  belonged  to  the 
federal  party.  Sir.  I  am  ready  to  go  into  an 
examination  with  tne  honorable  senator  at  any 
time,  and  then  we  shall  see  if  there  are  not 
more  members  of  that  same  old  federal  party 
amongst  those  whom  the  senator  has  so  re- 
cently joined,  than  on  our  side  of  the  house. 
The  plain  truth  is,  that  it  is  the  old  federal  par^ 
ty  with  whom  he  is  now  acting.  For  all  the 
former  grounds  of  difference  which  distin- 
guished that  party,  and  were  the  great  subjects 
of  contention  between  them  and  the  repibli- 
cans,  have  ceased  from  lapse  of  time  and  change 
of  circumstances,  with  the  exception  of  one,  and 
that  is  the  maintenance  and  increase  of  execit- 
tive  power.  This  was  a  leading  policT'  of  the 
federal  party.  A  strong^  powwful,  and  ener- 
getic executiye  was  its  &Y0rite  tenet.  The 
leading  members  of  that  party  had  come  out  of 
the  national  conyention  with  an  impression  that 
under  the  new  constitution  the  executiye  arm 
was  too  weak.  The  danger  they  apprehended 
was,  that  the  executiye  would  be  absorbed  by 
the  legislatiye  department  of  the  goyemment ; 
and  accordingly  the  old  federal  doctrine  was 
that  the  £xc^tiye  must  be  upheld,  that  its  in- 
fluence must  be  extended  and  strengthened; 
and  as  a  means  to  this,  tJiat  its  patronage  must 
be  multiplied.  And  what,  I  pray,  is  at  this 
hour  the  leading  object  of  that  party,  which  the 
senator  has  joined,  but  this  yery  thing  1  It 
was  maintained  in  the  conyention  by  Mr.  Madi- 
son, that  to  remoye  a  public  o£9oer  without 
yalid  cause,  would  rightfully  subject  a  president 
of  the  United  States  to  impeachment  But 
now  not  only  is  no  reason  required,  but  the 
principle  is  maintained  that  no  reason  can  be 
asked.  A  is  remoyed  and  B  is  put  in  his  place, 
because  such  is  the  pleasure  of  the  president. 

"  The  senator  is  fond  of  the  recoil.  I  should 
not  myself  haye  gone  to  it* but  for  the  infinite 
grayity  and  self-complacency  with  which  he 
appeals  to  it  in  yindication  of  his  own  consis- 
tency. Let  me  then  read  a  little  from  one  of 
the  yery  speeches  in  1834,  from  whidi  he  has 
so  libenlly  quoted,  and  called  upon  the  secre- 
tary to  read  so  loud,  and  the  Senate  to  listen  so 
attentiyely : 

**  Bat  there  to  in  my  opinkm  a  itrong,  tf  not  an  Insnpenble 
obJeetloD  against  resortln  to  this  measare,  resnldng  ft^ni  the 
Jiiet  that  an  oxdoalTe  receipt  of  specie  la  the  treeanry  would, 
to  give  it  efficacy,  and  to  prevent  extensive  » peeulailon  and 
fraud,  require  an  entire  disconnection  on  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment, with  the  banking  system.  In  all  its  forma,  and  a  re- 
sort to  the  strong  box,  as  the  means  of  preserving  and  goard- 
iag  its  ftinds— a  means.  If  pracUcabie  at  all  la  the  preeent  state 
of  things,  liable  to  the  objection  of  being  far  Itat  wft^  ec^no- 
tnicalt  and  ^ffidmO^  fkan  th4  prǤ$nV' 

"  Here  is  a  strong  denunciation  of  that  yery 
system  he  is  now  eulogising  to  the  skies.  Here 


he  deprecates  a  disoonnection  with  all  banks  as 
a  most  disastrons  measure ;  and,  as  the  strongest 
argument  agamst  it,  says  that  it  will  necessarily 
le^  to  the  antiquated  policy  of  the  strtmg  box. 
Yet^  now  the  senator  thinks  the  strong  box 
system  the  wisest  thing  on  earth.  As  to  the 
acquiescence  of  the  honorable  senator  in  mea- 
sures deemed  by  him  unconstitutional,  I  onlj 
regret  that  ha  suddenly  stopped  short  in  his 
acquiescence.  He  was,  m  1816,  at  the  head  of 
the  finance  committee,  in  the  other  House,  haying 
been  put  there  by  myself  acquieseinff  all  the 
while  in  the  doctrines  of  a  bank,  as  perfectly 
sound,  and  reporting  to  that  effect.  He  acqm- 
eflced  for  nearly  twenty  years,  not  a  doubt  es- 
caping from  him  during  the  wnole  time.  The 
year  1834  comes :  the  deposits  are  seised,  the 
curren^  turned  up  side  down,  and  the  senator 
comes  mrward  and  proposes  as  a  remedy  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  for 
twelye  years — ^here  acquiescing  once  more ;  and 
as  he  tells  us,  in  order  to  saye  the  countir. 
But  if  the  salyati<m  of  the  country  would  justify 
his  acquiescence  in  1816  and  in  1834, 1  can  only 
regret  that  he  did  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to 
acquiesce  once  more  in  what  would  haye  reme- 
died all  our  eyils. 

^  In  regard  to  the  tariff  of  1816,  has  the  senator 
forgotten  the  dispute  at  that  time  about  the 
protection  of  the  cotton  manu&cture  ?  The 
yery  point  of  that  dispute  was,  whether  we  had 
a  right  to  giye  protection  or  not  He  admits 
the  truth  of  what  I  said,  that  the  constitutional 
question  as  to  the  power  of  the  goremment  to 
protect  our  own  industry  was  neyer  raised  be- 
fore 1820  or  1822.  It  was  but  first  hinted,  then 
oontroyerted,  and  soon  after  expanded  into  nul- 
lification, alfiiough  the  senator  had  supported 
the  tariff  of  1816  on  the  yery  ground  that  we 
had  power.  I  do  not  now  recollect  distinctly 
his  whole  course  m  the  legislature,  but  he  cer- 
tainly introduced  the  bonus  bill  in  1816,  and 
sustained  it  by  a  speech  on  the  subject  of  in- 
ternal improyements,  which  neither  expresses 
nor  implies  a  doubt  of  the  constitutional  power. 
But  why  set  apart  a  bonus,  if  the  goyemment 
had  no  power  to  make  internal  improyements  ? 
If  he  wished  internal  improyements^  but  con- 
scientiously belieyed  them  unconstitutional,  why 
did  he  not  introduce  a  resolution  proposing  to 
amend  the  constitution?  Yet  he  offered  no 
such  thing.  When  he  produced  his  splendid 
report  from  the  war  department,  what  did  he 
mean?  Why  did  he  tantalize  us  with  that 
bright  and  gorgeous  picture  of  canals  and  roads, 
and  piers  and  luurbors,  if  it  was  unconstitutionai 
for  us  to  touch  the  plan  with  one  of  our  fingers  ? 
The  senator  says  in  reply^  that  this  report  did 
not  broach  the  constitutional  question.  True. 
But  why  ?  Is  there  any  other  conclusion  than 
that  he  did  not  entertain  himself  any  doubt 
about  it?  What  a  most  extraordinary  thing 
would  it  be.  should  the  head  of  a  depi^tmen^ 
in  his  official  capacity,  present  a  report  to  both 


118 


THIRTr  TEARS'  VIEW. 


houses  of  Congress,  proposing  a  most  elaborate 
plan  for  the  internal  improvement  of  the  whole 
union,  accompanied  by  estimates  and  statistical 
tables,  when  he  believed  there  was  no  power  in 
either  house  to  adopt  any  part  of  it.  The  sena- 
tor dwells  upon  Ids  consistency  :  I  can  tell  him 
when  he  will  be  consistent — and  that  i6  when 
he  shall  never  pronounce  that  word  again." 

Mr.  Calhoun.  «  As  to  the  tariflf  of  1816, 1 
never  denied  that  Congress  have  the  power  to 
impose  a  protective  tariff  for  the  purpose  of 
revenue ;  and  beyond  that  the  tariff  of  1816 
did  not  go  one  inch.  The  question  of  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  protective  tariff  was  never 
raised  till  some  time  afterwards. 

^  As  to  what  the  senator  says  of  executive 
power,  I,  as  much  as  he,  am  opposed  to  its  aug- 
mentation, and  I  will  go  as  fiir  in  preventing  it 
as  any  man  in  this  House.  I  maintain  that  the 
executive  and  judicial  authorities  should  have 
no  discretionary  power,  and  as  soon  as  they 
begin  to  exercise  such  power,  the  matter  should 
be  taken  up  by  Congress.  These  opinions  are 
well  grounded  in  my  mind,  and  I  will  go  as  £Eur 
as  any  in  bringing  the  Executive  to  this  point. 
But,  I  believe,  the  Executive  is  now  outstripped 
by  the  congressional  power.  He  is  for  restrict- 
ing the  one.    I  war  upon  both. 

^  The  senator  says  I  assigned  as  a  reason  of 
my  course  at  the  extra  session  that  I  suspected 
that  he  and  the  gentleman  with  whom  he  acted 
would  revive  the  tariff.  I  spoke  not  of  the  tariff, 
but  a  national  bank.  I  believe  that  banks  natu- 
rally and  assuredly  ally  themselves  to  taxes  on 
the  community.  The  higher  the  taxes  the  greater 
their  profits ;  and  so  it  is  with  regard  to  a  sur- 
plus and  the  government  disbursements.  If  the 
EMinking  power  is  on  the  side  of  a  national  bank, 
I  see  in  that  what  may  lead  to  all  the  conse- 
quences which  I  have  described ;  and  I  oppose 
institutions  that  are  likely  to  lead  to  such  re- 
sults. When  the  bank  should  receive  the  money 
of  the  government,  it  would  ally  itself  to  taxa- 
tion, and  it  ought  to  be  resisted  on  that  ground. 
I  am  very  glad  that  the  question  is  now  fairly 
met  The  fieite  of  the  country  depends  on  the 
point  of  separation ;  if  there  be  a  separation  be- 
tween the  government  and  banks,  the  banks 
will  be  on  the  republican  side  in  opposition  to 
taxes ;  if  they  unite,  they  will  be  in  fiivor  of 
the  exercise  of  the  taxing  power. 

^'  The  senator  says  I  acquiesced  in  the  use  of 
the  banks  because  the  banks  existed.  I  did  so 
because  the  connection  existed.  The  banks  were 
already  used  as  depositories  of  the  government, 
and  it  was  impossible  at  once  to  reverse  that 
state  of  things.  I  went  on  the  ground  that  the 
banks  were  a  necessary  evil.  The  State  banks 
exist;  and  would  not  he  be  a  madman  that 
would  annihilate  them  because  their  respective 
bills  are  uncurrent  in  distant  parts  of  the  coun- 
try 1  The  work  of  creating  them  is  done,  and 
cannot  be  reversed ;  when  once  done,  it  is  done 
for  ever* 


^  I  was  formerly  decided  in  fiiror  of  separatiiig 
the  banks  and  the  government,  but  it  was  im- 
possible then  to  make  it,  and  it  would  have  been 
followed  by  nothing  but  disaster.  The  senator 
says  the  separation  already  exists ;  but  it  is 
only  contingent ;  whenever  the  banks  resume, 
the  connection  will  be  legally  restored.  In  1834 
I  objected  to  the  sub-treasury  project^  wd  I 
thought  it  not  as  safe  as  the  system  now  before 
us.  But  it  turns  out  that  it  was  more  safe,  as 
appears  from  the  argument  of  the  senator  from 
Delaware,  (Mr.  Bayard.)  I  was  then  under 
the  impression  that  the  banks  were  more  safe 
but  it  proves  otherwise." 

Mr.  Clay.  "  If  the  senator  would  review  his 
speech  again,  he  would  see  there  a  plain  and 
explicit  denunciation  of  a  sub-treasury  system. 

"  The  distinguished  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina (I  had  almost  said  my  friend  from  South 
Carolina,  so  lately  and  So  abruptly  has  he  bunted 
all  amicable  relations  between  us,  independent 
of  his  habit  of  change,  I  think,  when  he  finds 
into  what  federal  doctrines  and  federal  company 
he  has  gotten,  he  will  be  disposed  soon  to  feel 
regret  and  to  return  to  us,)  has  not,  I  am  pe^ 
suaded,  weighed  sufificiently  the  import  of  the 
unkind  imputations  contained  in  his  Edgefield 
letter  towards  his  former  allies — imputations 
that  their  principles  are  daneerous  to  our  insti- 
tutions, and  of  their  want  of  firmness  and  pa- 
triotism. I  have  read  that  singular  letter  again 
and  again,  with  inexpressible  surprise  and  re- 
gret ;  more,  however,  if  he  will  allow  mc  to  say 
so,  on  his  own  than  on  our  account 

"Mr.  President,  I  am  done ;  and  I  sincerely 
hope  that  the  adjustment  of  the  account  between 
the  senator  and  myself,  just  made,  may  be  as 
satisfactory  to  him  as  I  assure  him  and  the 
Senate  it  is  perfectly  so  to  me." 

Mr.  Calhoun.  "  I  have  moi*e  to  say,  but  will 
forbear,  as  the  senator  appears  desirous  of  hat- 
ing the  last  word." 

Mr.  Clay.    "NotataU." 

The  personal  debate  between  Mr.  Calhoun 
and  Mr.  Clay  terminated  for  the  day,  and  with 
apparent  good  feeling;  but  only  to  break  out 
speedily  on  a  new  point,  and  to  lead  to  further 
political  revelations  important  to  history  ^^^' 
Calhoun,  after  a  long  alienation,  personal  as  well 
as  political,  fh)m  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  bitter 
war&re  upon  him,  had  become  reconciled  to  h«n 
in  both  capacities,  and  had  made  a  complii°^°' 
tary  call  upon  him,  and  had  expressed  to  him 
an  approbation  of  his  leading  measures.  AH 
this  was  natural  and  proper  after  he  had  he- 
come  a  public  supporter  of  these  measures ;  but  a 
manifestation  of  respect  and  confidence  bo  ^^ 
cided,  after  a  seven  years'  perseverlmoe  in  a  ^' 
fiare  so  bitter,  could  not  be  expected  to  P^ 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESmENT. 


119 


without  the  impatation  of  BiniBter  motiyes; 
and,  accordingly,  a  design  upon  the  presidency 
as  successor  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  attributed 
to  him.  The  opposition  newspapers  abounded 
with  this  imputation;  and  an  early  occasion 
was  taken  in  the  Senate  to  make  it  the  subject 
of  a  public  debate.  Mr.  Calhoun  had  brought 
into  the  Senate  a  bill  to  cede^to  the  several 
States  the  public  lands  within  their  limits, 
after  a  sale  of  the  saleable  parts  at  graduated 
prices,  for  the  benefit  of  both  parties — ^the 
new  States  and  the  United  States.  It  was 
the  same  bill  which  he  had  brought  in  two 
years  before ;  but  Mr.  Clay,  taking  it  tip  as  a 
new  measure,  inquired  if  it  was  an  administra- 
tion measure?  whether  he  had  brought  it  in 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  President  ?  If  no- 
thing more  had  been  said  Mr.  Calhoun  could 
haye  answered,  that  it  was  the  same  bill  which 
he  had  brought  in  two  years  before,  when  he  was 
in  opposition  to  the  administration ;  and  that  his 
reasons  for  bringing  it  in  were  the  same  now  as 
then ;  but  Mr.  Clay  went  on  to  taunt  him  with 
his  new  relations  with  the  chief  magistrate,  and 
to  connect  the  bill  with  the  yisit  to  Mr.  Van 
Buren  and  approval  of  his  measures.  Mr.  Cal- 
houn saw  that  the  inquiry  was  only  a  vehicle 
for  the  taunt,  and  took  it  up  accordingly  in  that 
sense :  and  this  led  to  an  exposition  of  the  rea- 
sons which  induced  him  to  join  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
and  to  explanations  on  other  points,  which  be- 
long to  history.  Mr.  Clay  began  the  debate  thus : 

'^  Whilst  up,  Mr.  Clay  would  be  glad  to  learn 
whether  the  administration  is  in  favor  of  or 
against  this  measure,  or  stands  neutral  and  un- 
committed. This  inquiry  he  should  not  make, 
if  the  recent  relations  between  the  senator  who 
introduced  this  bill  and  the  head  of  that  admin- 
istration, continued  to  exist;  but  rumors,  of 
which  tne  city,  the  circles  and  the  press  are 
full,  assert  that  those  relations  are  entirely 
changed,  and  have,  within  a  few  days,  been 
substituted  by  others  of  an  intimate,  friendly, 
and  confidential  nature.  And  shortly  after  the 
time  when  this  new  state  of  things  is  alleged  to 
have  taken  place,  the  senator  gave  notice  of  his  in- 
tention to  move  to  introduce  this  bill.  Whether 
this  motion  has  or  has  not  any  connection  with 
that  adjustment  of  former  difierences.  the  public 
would,  he  had  no  doubt,  be  glad  to  know.  At 
all  events,  it  is  important  to  know  in  what  re- 
lation of  support,  opposition,  or  neutrality,  the 
administration  actually  stands  to  this  momen- 
tous measure;  and  he  [Mr.  C], supposed  that 
the  senator  from  South  Carolina,  or  some  other 


senator,  could  communicate  the  desired  informa- 
tion." 

Mr.  Calhoun,  besides  vindicating  himself,  re- 
buked the  indecorum  of  making  his  personal 
conduct  a  subject  of  public  remark  in  the  Sen- 
ate ;  and  threw  back  the  taunt  by  reminding 
Mr.  Clay  of  his  own  change  in  iKvor  of  Mr. 
Adams. 

^  He  said  the  senator  frt>m  Kentucky  had  in- 
troduced other,  and  extraneous  personal  matter ; 
and  asked  whether  the  bill  had  the  sanction  of 
the  Executive ;  assigning  as  a  reason  for  his  in- 
quiry, that,  if  rumor  was  to  be  credited,  a  change 
of  personal  relation  had  taken  place  between 
the  President  and  myself  within  the  last  few 
days.  He  [Mr.  C]  would  appeal  to  the  Senate 
whether  it  was  decorous  or  proper  that  his  per- 
sonal relations  should  be  drawn  in  question 
here.  Whether  he  should  establish  or  suspend 
personal  relations  with  the  President,  or  any 
other  person,  is  a  private  and  personii  concern, 
which  belongs  to  himself  individually  to  deter^ 
mine  on  the  propriety,  without  consulting  any 
one,  much  less  the  senator.  It  was  none  of  his 
concern,  and  he  has  no  right  to  question  me  in 
relation  to  it 

"  But  the  senator  assumes  that  a  change  in 
my  personal  relations  involves  a  change  of  poli- 
tical  position ;  and  it  is  on  that  he  founds  bis 
right  to  make  the  inquiry.  He  judges,  doubt- 
less, by  his  own  experience ;  but  I  would  have 
him  to  understand,  said  Mr.  C,  that  what  may 
be  true  in  his  own  case  on  a  memorable  occa- 
sion, is  not  true  in  mine.  His  political  course 
may  be  governed  by  personal  considerations; 
but  mine,  I  trust,  is  governed  strictly  by  my 
principles,  and  is  not  at  all  under  the  control  of 
my  attacnments  or  enmities.  Whether  the 
President  is  personally  my  friend  or  enemy, 
has  no  influence  over  me  in  the  discharge  of  my 
duties,  as,  I  trust,  mv  course  has  abundantly 
proved.  Mr.  C.  concluded  by  saying,  that  he 
felt  that  these  were  improper  topics  to  intro- 
duce here,  and  that  he  had  passed  over  them  as 
briefly  as  possible." 

This  retort  gave  new  scope  and  animation  to 
the  debate,  and  led  to  further  expositions  of  the 
famous  compromise  of  1833,  which  was  a  matter 
of  concord  between  them  at  the  time,  and  of 
discord  ever  since ;  and  which,  being  much  con- 
demned in  the  first  volume  of  this  work,  the 
authors  of  it  are  entitled  to  their  own  vindica- 
tions when  they  choose  to  make  them :  and  this 
they  found  frequent  occasion  to  do.  The  debate 
proceeded: 

^  Mr.  Clay  contended  that  his  question,  as  to 
whether  this  was  an  administration  measure  or 


120 


THIETY  TEARS^  VffiW. 


not,  was  a  proper  one,  as  it  was  important  for 
the  public  information.  He  again  referred  to 
the  rumors  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  new  relations  with 
the  President,  and  supposed  from  the  declanir 
tions  of  the  senator,  that  these  rumors  were 
true ;  and  that  his  support,  if  not  pledged,  was 
at  least  promised  conditionally  to  the  adminis- 
tration. Was  it  of  no  importance  to  the  public 
to  learn  that  these  pledges  and  compromises  had 
been  entered  into  ? — that  the  distinguished  sena- 
tor had  made  his  bow  in  court,  kissed  the  hand 
of  the  monarch,  was  taken  into  fay  or,  and  agreed 
henceforth  to  support  his  edicts  ?  ** 

This  allusion  to  rumored  pledges  and  condi- 
tions on  which  Mr.  Calhoun  had  joined  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  provoked  a  retaliatory  notice  of 
what  the  same  rumor  had  bruited  at  the  time 
that  Mr.  Clay  became  the  supporter  of  Mr. 
Adams  -,  and  Mr.  Calhoun  said : 

<<The  senator  from  Kentudcy  had  spoken 
much  of  pledges,  understandings,  and  political 
compromises,  and  sudden  change  of  personal  re- 
lations. He  [said  Mr.  C]  is  much  more  expe- 
rienced in  such  things  thui  I  am.  K  my  mem- 
ory serves  me,  and  if  rumors  are  to  be  trusted, 
tho  senator  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  such 
things,  in  connection  with  a  distinguished  citi- 
zen, now  of  the  other  House ;  and  it  is  not  at 
all  surprising,  from  his  experience  then,  in  his 
own  case,  that  he  should  not  be  indisposed  to 
bdieve  similar  rumors  of  another  now.  But 
whether  his  sudden  change  of  personal  relations 
then,  from  bitter  enmity  to  the  most  confiden- 
tial friendship  with  that  citizen,  was  preceded 
by  pledges,  understandings,  and  political  oom- 
promiaes  on  the  part  of  one  or  both,  it  is  not 
for  me  to  say.  The  country  has  long  since 
passed  on  that." 

All  this  taunt  on  both  sides  was  mere  irrita- 
tion, having  no  foundation  in  fact.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  the  writer  of  this  View,  on  each  of 
these  occasions  (of  sudden  ooi\junctions  with 
former  adversaries),  stood  in  a  relation  to  know 
what  took  place.  In  one  case  he  was  confiden- 
tial with  Mr.  Clay ;  in  the  other  with  Mr.  Van 
Buren.  In  a  fonner  chapter  he  has  given  his 
testimony  in  favor  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  agidnst  the 
imputed  bargain  with  Mr.  Aduns :  he  can  here 
give  it  in  fnvor  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  He  is  entirely 
eertain^as  much  so  as  it  is  possible  to  be  in  sup- 
porting a  negative — ^that  no  promise,  pledge,  or 
condition  of  any  kind,  took  place  between  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  coming  together 
as  they  did  at  this  juncture.  How  &r  Mr.  Cal- 
houn might  have  looked  to  lus  own  chance  of 
mcoeeding  Mr.  Van  Buren,  is  another  question, 
and  a  fiur  one.    The  sucoessk)n  was  certainly 


open  in  the  democratic  line.    Those  who  stood 
nearest  the  head  of  the  party  had  no  desire  for 
the  presidency,  but  the  contrary;  and  onlj 
wished  a  suitable  chief  magistrate  at  the  head 
of  the  government — giving  him  a  cordial  sup- 
port in  all  patriotic  measures ;  and  preserring 
their  independence  by  refusing  his  ftvors.   This 
allusion  refers  especially  to  Mr.  Silas  Wiight; 
and  if  it  had  not  been  for  a  calamitous  ood&- 
gration,  there  might  be  proof  that  it  wodd  ap- 
ply to  another.     Both  Mr.  Wright  and  Mr. 
Benton  refused  cabinet  appointments  from  Mr. 
Van  Buren;  and  repressed  every  moTement 
in  their  favor  towards  the  presidency.    Under 
such  drcumstanoes,  Mr.  Calhoun  might  hin 
indulged  in  a  vision  of  the  democratic  saooes- 
sion,  after  the  second  tenn  of  Mr.  Van  Boren, 
without  the  slippery  and  ignominious  oontriT- 
anoe  of  attempting  to  contract  for  it  before- 
hand.   There  was  certainly  a  talk  about  it,  ind 
a   sounding   of  public  men.     Two   difiereni 
firiends  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  at  two  different  tiioa 
and  places, — one  in  Missouri  (Thomas  Hadson, 
Esq.),  and  the  other  in  Washington  (QoT.Ftl- 
liam   Smith,  of   Virginia), — ^inquired  of  ibis 
writer  whether  he  had  sud  that  he  could  not 
support  Mr.  Calhoun  for  the  presidency,  if 
nominated  by  a  democratic  convention?  uA 
were  answered  that  he  had,  and  becanse  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  the  author  of  nullification,  and 
of  measures  tending  to  the  dissolution  of  ths 
IJnkm.    The  answer  went  into  the  newspapers, 
without  the  agency  of  him  who  gave  it,  and 
without  the  reasons  which  he  gave:  and  his 
opposition  was  set  down   to  causes  equally 
gratuitous  and  unfounded — one,  personal  ill-will 
to  Mr.  Calhoun ;  the  other,  a  hankering  after 
the  place  himself.    But  to  return  to  Messrs. 
Clay  and  Calhoun.     These  reciprocal  taunts 
having  been  indulged  in,  the  debate  took  a 
more  elevated  turn,  and  entered  the  region  of 
history.    Mr.  Calhoun  continued : 

'^I  will  assure  the  senator,  if  there  wo* 
pledges  in  his  case,  there  were  none  in  minej 
I  have  terminated  my  long^uspended  pcrBOMl 
intercourse  with  the  President,  without  the 
slightest  pledge,  understanding,  or  compromise 
on  either  side.  I  would  be  the  last  to  rec&^ 
or  exact  such.  The  transition  from  their  fo^ 
mer  to  their  present  personal  relation  was  ea^ 
and  natural,  requiring  nothing  of  the  kind.  1| 
gives  me  pleasure  to  say,  thus  openly,  that  1 
have  approved  of  all  the  leading  measures  ^^^ 
the  President,  since   he  took  the  Eiecutiv* 


AKNO  18S&    MABTDT  VAN  BUBBN,  PBESIDENT. 


121 


chair,  i 


Aj  becauM  the^  aooord  with  the  prin- 
ciples and  policy  on  which  I  hare  long  acted, 
and  often  openly  ayowed.  The  change,  then,  in 
oar  personal  relationa,  had  simply  followed  that 
of  our  politicaL  Kor  was  it  nuide  suddenly,  as 
tbe  senator  chaigea.  So  far  from  it^  more  than 
two  years  haye  elapsed  sinoe  I  gave  a  decided 
support  to  tbe  leading  measure  of  the  Ezecu- 
tiye,  and  on  which  almost  all  others  since  haye 
tnnied.  This  Ions  interval  was  permitted  to 
pass,  in  order  that  hia  acts  might  giye  assuranoe 
whether  there  was  a  coincidence  between  our 
political  yiews  as  to  the  principles  on  which  the 
goyemment  should  be  administered,  before  our 
personal  relations  should  be  changed.  I  deemed 
it  due  to  both  thus  long  to  delay  the  diange, 
among  other  reasons  to  discountenance  such 
idle  rumors  as  the  senator  alludes  to.  That  his 
political  course  might  be  judged  (said  Mr.  Cal- 
houn) by  the  object  he  had  in  yiew,  and  not  the 
suspicion  and  jealousy  of  his  political  opponents, 
he  would  repeat  what  he  had  said,  at  the  last 
session,  was  his  object  It  is,  said  he,  to  oblit- 
erate aJl  those  measures  which  had  originated 
in  the  national  consolidation  school  of  politics, 
and  especially  the  senator's  fiuaous  American 
system,  which  he  belieyed  to  be  hostile  to  the 
constitution  and  the  genius  of  our  political  sys- 
tem, and  the  real  source  of  all  the  msorders  and 
dangers  to  which  the  country  was,  or  had  been, 
subject.  This  done,. he  was  for  giving  the  goy- 
emment a  fresh  departure,  in  the  direction  in 
which  Jefferson  and  his  associates  would  giye. 
were  they  now  alive  and  at  the  hehn.  He  stood 
where  he  had  always  stood,  on  the  old  State 
r^hts  ground.  His  change  of  personal  relation, 
whidi  gave  so  much  concern  to  the  senator,  so 
far  from  involving  any  change  in  his  principles 
or  doctrines,  grew  out  of  them." 


The  latter  part  of  this  reply  of  Mr.  Calhoun 
16  worthy  of  universal  acceptance,  and  perpetual 
remembrance.  The  real  source  of  all  the  disor- 
ders to  which  the  country  was,  or  had  been 
subject)  was  in  the  system  of  legislation  which 
encouraged  the  industry  of  one  part  of  the 
Union  at  the  expense  of  the  other— which  gave 
rise  to  extravagant  expenditures,  to  be  expended 
unequally  in  the  two  sections  of  the  Union — 
and  which  left  tbe  Southern  section  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  a  system  which  exhausted  her. 
This  remarkable  declaration  of  Mr.  Calhoun  was 
made  in  1839 — ^being  four  years  after  the  slavery 
agitation  had  superseded  the  tariff  agitation, — 
and  which  went  back  to  that  system  of  meas- 
ures, of  which  protective  tariff  was  the  main- 
spring, to  find,  and  truly  find,  the  real  source 
of  all  the  dangers  and  disorders  of  the  country 
— ^past  and  present    Mr.  Clay  replied : 

^  He  had  understood  the  senator  as  Matat- 


ing  himself  on  the  opportunity  which  had  been 
now  afforded  him  by  Mr.  C.  of  defining  once 
more  his  polititml  position ;  and  Mr.  C.  must 
say  that  he  had  now  defined  it  very  clearly, 
and  had  i^parently  given  it  a  new  definition. 
The  senator  now  declared  that  all  the  leading 
measures  of  the  present  administration  had  met 
his  approbation,  and  should  receive  his  support 
It  turned  out  then,  that  the  rumor  to  which 
Mr.  C.  had  alluded  was  true,  and  that  the  sen- 
ator from  South  Carolina  might  be  hereafter 
regarded  as  a  supporter  of  this  administration, 
since  he  had  dedared  that  all  its  leading  meoA- 
ures  were  approved  by  him^and  should  have 
his  support  As  to  the  allusion  which  the  sen- 
ator fh>m  South  Carolina  had  made  in  regard 
to  Mr.  C.'s  support  of  the  head  of  another  ad- 
ministration [Mr.  Adams],  it  occasioned  Mr.  C. 
no  pain  whatever.  It  was  an  old  story,  which 
had  long  been  sunk  in  oblivion,  except  when 
the  senator  and  a  few  others  thought  proper  to 
bring  it  up.  But  what  were  the  heta  of  that 
case  ?  Mr.  C.  was  then  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  to  whom  three  persons  had 
been  returned,  from  whom  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  House  to  make  a  selection  for  the  presiden- 
cy. As  to  one  of  those  three  candidates,  he  was 
^own  to  be  in  an  unfortunate  condition,  in 
which  no  one  sympathized  with  him  more  tnan 
did  Mr.  C.  Certamlv  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina  did  not.  That  gentleman  was  there- 
fore out  of  the  question  as  a  candidate  for  the 
chief  magistracy ;  and  Mr.  C.  had  conse(^uently 
the  only  altemative  of  the  illustrious  individual 
at  the  Hermitage,  or  of  the  man  who  was  now 
disttngui^ed  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  who  had  held  so  many  public  places  with 
honor  to  himself,  and  benefit  to  the  country. 
And  if  there  was  any  truth  in  history,  the 
choice  which  Mr.  C.  then  made  was  precisely 
the  choice  which  the  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina had  urged  upon  his  friends.  The  senator 
himself  had  dediu^  his  preference  of  Adams 
to  Jackson.  Mr.  C.  made  the  same  choice ; 
and  his  constituents  had  approved  it  from  that 
day  to  this,  and  would  to  eternity.  History 
would  ratify  and  approve  it  Let  the  senator 
from  SouUi  Carolma  make  an^r  thing  out  of  that 
part  of  Mr.  C.'s  public  career  if  he  could.  Mr. 
C.  dd&ed  him.  The  senator  had  alluded  to  Mr. 
C.  as  ^e  advocate  of  compromise.  Certainly 
he  was.  This  government  itself  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, was  founaed  and  rested  on  compromise ; 
and  to  the  particular  compromise  to  which  al- 
lusion had  been  made,  Mr.  C.  thought  no  man 
ought  to  be  more  grateful  for  it  than  the  sena- 
tor from  South  Carolina.  But  for  that  com- 
promise Mr.  C.  was  not  at  all  confident  that  he 
would  nave  now  had  the  honor  to  meet  that 
senator  face  to  face  in  this  national  capitoL" 

The  allusion  in  the  latter  part  of  this  reply 
was  to  the  President's  declared  determmation 
to  execute  the  laws  upon  Mr.  Calhoun  if  an 


122 


THIRTY"  YEARS'  YIEW, 


overt  act  of  treaBon  should  be  committed  mider 
the  nullification  ordinance  of  South  Carolina ; 
and  the  preparations  for  which  (overt  act)  were 
too  far  advanced  to  admit  of  another  step,  either 
backwards  or  forwards ;  and  from  which  most 
critical  condition  the  compromise  relieved  those 
who  were  too  deeply-  committed,  to  retreat  >vith- 
out  ruin,  or  to  advance  without  personal  periL 
Mr.  Calhoun's  reply  was  chiefly  directed  to  this 
pn^nant  allusion. 

'^  The  senator  from  Kentucky  has  said,  Mr. 
President,  that  I,  of  all  men,  ought  to  be  grate- 
fid  to  him  for  the  compromise  act 
[Mr.  Clay.  "  I  did  not  say  *  to  me.' "] 
^*  The  senator  claims  to  be  the  author  of  that 
measure,  and.  of  course,  if  there  be  any  gratitude 
due.  it  must  be  to  him.  I,  said  Mr.  Calhoun, 
made  no  allusion  to  that  act ;  but  as  the  senator 
has  thought  proper  to  refer  to  it,  and  claim  my 
eratitude,  I,  in  turn,  now  tell  him  I  feel  not  the 
least  gratitude  towards  him  for  it  The  meas- 
ure was  necessary  to  save  the  senator  politi- 
cally: and  as  he  has  alluded  to  the  subject,  both 
on  this  and  on  a  former  occasion,  I  feel  bound 
to  explain  what  might  otherwise  have  been  left 
in  oblivion.  The  senator  was  then  compelled  to 
compromise  to  save  himself.  Events  had  placed 
him  fiat  on  his  back,  and  he  had  no  way  to  re- 
cover himself  but  bv  the  compromise.  This  is 
no  after  thought.  I  wrote  more  than  half  a 
dozen  of  letters  home  at  the  time  to  that  effect 
I  shall  now  explain.  The  proclamation  and 
messaee  of  General  Jackson  necessarily  rallied 
around  him  all  the  steadfast  friends  of  the  sena- 
tor's system.  They  withdrew  their  allegiance  at 
once  from  him,  and  transferred  it  to  General 
Jackson.  The  senator  was  thus  left  in  the  most 
hopeless  condition,  with  no  more  weight  with  his 
former  partisans  than  this  sheet  of  paper  Praising 
a  sheet  from  his  desk).  This  is  not  all.  The 
position  which  General  Jackson  had  assumed, 
necessarily  attracted  towards  him  a  distinguish- 
ed senator  from  Massachusetts,  not  now  here 
[Mr.  Webster],  who,  it  is  clear,  would  have 
reaped  all  the  political  honors  and  advantages 
of  the  system,  had  the  contest  come  to  blows. 
These  causes  made  the  political  condition  of  the 
senator  truly  forlorn  at  the  time.  On  him 
rested  all  the  responsibility,  as  the  author  of  the 
system;  while  all  the  power  and  influence  it 
gave,  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  others.  Com- 
promise was  the  only  means  of  extrication.  He 
was  thus  forced  by  the  action  of  the  State,  which 
I  in  part  represent,  against  his  system,  by  my 
counsel  to  compromise,  in  order  to  save  him- 
self. I  had  the  mastery  over  him  on  the  occa- 
sion." 

This  is  historical,  and  is  an  inside  view  of  his- 
tory. Mr.  Webster,  in  that  great  contest  of 
nnUification,  was  on  the  side  of  President  Jack- 


son, and  the  supreme  defender  of  his  gmt 
measure — ^the  Proclamation  of  1833 ;  and  the 
first  and  most  powerful  opponent  of  ths 
measure  out  of  which  it  grew.  It  was  i  splen- 
did era  in  his  life — both  for  his  intellect^  and 
his  patriotism.  No  longer  the  advocate  of 
classes,  or  interests,  he  appeared  the  great  de- 
fender of  the  Union^-of  the  constitotioii— of 
the  country — and  of  the  administration,  to 
which  he  was  opposed.  Released  from  the 
bonds  of  party,  and  from  the  narrow  confina 
of  class  and  corporation  advocacy,  his  ooIobsiI 
intellect  expanded  to  its  lull  proportions  in  the 
field  of  patriotism,  luminous  with  the  fires  of 
genius ;  and  commanding  the  homage,  not  of 
party,  but  of  country.  His  magnificent  hir 
rangnes  touched  Jackson  in  his  deepestrseated 
and  ruling  feeling — ^bve  of  countiy !  and 
brought  forth  the  response  which  always  came 
from  him  when  the  country  was  in  peril,  and  a 
defender  presented  himself.  He  threw  oot  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship — ^treated  Mr.  Webster 
with  marked  distinction — commended  liim  with 
pubhc  praise— and  placed  him  on  the  roll  of  par 
triots.  And  the  public  mind  took  the  beliei 
that  they  were  to  act  together  in  future ;  &n<i 
that  a  cabinet  appointment,  or  a  high  mission, 
would  be  the  reward  of  his  patriotic  serrioe. 
(It  was  the  report  of  such  expected  preferment 
that  excited  Mr.  Randolph  (then  in  no  condi- 
tion to  bear  excitement)  against  General  Jack- 
son.) It  was  a  crisis  in  the  political  life  of  Mr. 
Webster.  He  stood  in  public  opposition  U>  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun.  With  Mr.  Clay  he  bad 
a  public  outbreak  in  the  Senate.  He  was  cor- 
dial with  Jackson.  The  mass  of  his  parij 
stood  by  him  on  the  proclamation.  He  was  at 
a  point  from  which  a  new  departure  might  ^ 
taken : — one  at  whidi  he  could  not  stand  still: 
from  which  there  must  be  advance,  or  recoil 
It  was  a  case  in  which  w*7Z,  more  than  inielUct, 
was  to  rule.  He  was  above  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr. 
Calhoun  in  mtellect — ^below  them  in  will  And 
he  was  soon  seen  co-operating  with  them  (Mr. 
Clay  in  the  lead),  in  the  great  measure  con- 
demning President  Jackson.  And  so  passed 
away  the  fruits  of  the  golden  era  of  1833.  It 
was  to  the  perils  of  this  conjunction  (of  Jack- 
son and  Webster)  that  Mr.  Calhoun  referred, 
as  the  forlorn  condition  from  which  the  com^ 
promise  relieved  Mr.  Clay :  and,  allowinfr  to 
each  the  benefit  of  his  assertion,  history  a>uil< 


ANNO  188a    MARTIN  VAN  BURKN,  PRESIDENT. 


123 


herself  of  the  decIaratioDB  of  each  in  giying  an 
inside  view  of  personal  motives  for  a  momen- 
tous public  act.  And,  without  deciding  a  ques- 
tion of  mastery  in  the  disputed  victoiy,  History 
performs  her  task  in  recording  the  fact  that,  in 
a  brief  space,  both  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Web- 
ster were  seen  following  the  lead  of  Mr.  Clay 
in  bis  great  attack  upon  President  Jackson  in 
the  session  of  1834r-'35. 

"  Mr.  Clay,  rejoining,  said  he  had  made  no 
allusion  to  the  compromise  bill  till  it  was  done 
by  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  himself;  he 
made  no  reference  to  the  eyents  of  1825  until 
the  senator  had  himself  set  him  the  example ; 
and  he  had  not  in  the  slightest  and  the  most 
distant  manner  alluded  to  nullification  until 
after  the  senator  himself  had  called  it  up.  The 
senator  ought  not  to  have  introduced  that  sub- 
ject, especially  when  he  had  gone  over  to  the 
authors  of  the  force  bill  and  the  proclamation. 

I  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  said  that  he 
[Mr.  C]  was  flat  on  his  back,  and  that  he  was 
my  master.    Sir,  I  would  not  own  him  as  my 

'       slave.  He  my  master !  and  I  compelled  by  him ! 

^       And,  as  if  it  were  impossible  to  go  far  enough 

I       in  one  paragraph,  he  refers  to  certain  letters  of 

I  his  own  to  prove  that  I  was  flat  on  my  back ! 
and,  that  I  was  not  only  on  my  back,  but  an- 
other senator  and  the  President  had  robbed 

'       me !    I  was  flat  on  my  back,  and  unable  to  do 

\  any  thing  but  what  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina  permitted  me  to  do ! 

"Why,  sir,  [said  Mr.  C]  I  gloried  in  my 
strength,  and  was  compell^  to  introduce  the 
compromise  bill ;  and  compelled,  too,  by  the 
senator,  not  in  consequence  of  the  wellness, 
l)ut  of  the  strength,  of  my  position.  If  it  was 
possible  for  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  to 
introduce  one  paragraph  without  showing  the 
egotism  of  his  character,  he  would  not  now  ac- 
knowledge that  he  wrote  letters  home  to  show 

,  that  he  (Mr.  C.)  was  flat  on  his  back,  while  he 
was  indebted  to  him  for  that  measure  which  re- 

'  lieyed  him  from  the  difficulties  in  which  he  was 
inyolyed.  Now.  what  was  the  history  of  the 
case  ?    Flat  as  ne  was  on  his  back,  Mr.  C.  said 

I  be  was  able  to  produce  that  compromise,  and  to 
carry  it  through  the  Senate,  in  opposition  to  the 
most  strenuous  exertions  of  the  gentleman  who, 
the  senator  from  South  Carolina  said,  had  sup* 
planted  him,  and  in  spite  of  his  determined  and 
unceasing  opposition.  There  was  (said  Mr.  C.) 
a  sort  of  necessity  operating  on  me  to  compel 
me  to  introduce  that  measure.    No  necessity 

'  of  a  personal  character  influenced  him;  but 
considerations  inyolying  the  interests,  the  peace 

,  and  harmony  of  the  whole  country,  as  well  as 
of  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  directed  him  in 
the  course  he  pursued.    He  saw  the  condition 

'  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  and  that  of 
his  friends  ;  he  saw  the  condition  to  which  he 

,       had  reduced  the  gallant  little  State  of  South 


Carolina  by  his  unwise  and  dangerous  measures; 
he  saw,  too.  that  we  were  on  the  eye  of  a  civil 
war;  and  ne  wished  to  saye  the  effusion  of 
blood — the  blood  of  our  own  fellow-citizens. 
That  was  one  reason  why  he  introduced  the 
compromise  bill.  There  was  another  reason 
that  powerfully  operated  on  him.  The  yery  in- 
terest that  the  tariff  laws  were  enacted  to  pro- 
tect— so  great  was  the  power  of  the  then  chief 
magistrate,  and  so  rapidly  was  that  power  in- 
creasin^l^was  in  danger  of  being  sacrificed.  He 
saw  that  the  protective  system  was  in  danger 
of  being  swept  away  entirely,  and  probably  at 
the  next  session  of  Congress,  by  the  tremendous 
power  of  the  indiyidual  who  then  filled  the  £xe- 
cutiye  chair ;  and  he  felt  that  the  greatest  scrvioo 
that  he  could  render  it,  would  be  to  obtain  for 
it  *  a  lease  for  a  term  of  years,'  to  use  an  expres- 
sion that  had  been  heretofore  applied  to  the  com- 
promise bill.  He  saw  the  necessity  that  existed 
to  saye  the  protective  system  from  the  danger 
which  threatened  it.  He  saw  the  necessity 
to  adyance  the  great  interests  of  the  nation,  to 
avert  ciyil  war,  and  to  restore  peace  and  har- 
mony to  a  distracted  and  diyided  country ;  and 
it  was  therefore  that  he  had  brought  forward 
this  measure.  The  senator  from  South  Carolina^ 
to  betray  still  further  and  more  strikingly  the 
characteristics  which  belonged  to  him,  said,  that 
in  consequence  of  his  (Mr.  C.'s)  remarks  this 
yery  day,  all  obligations  towards  him  on  the 
part  of  himself  (Mr.  Calhoun),  of  the  State  of 
South  Carolina,  and  the  whole  South,  were  can- 
celled. And  what  right  had  the  senator  to  get 
up  and  assume  to  spcAk  of  the  whole  South,  or 
even  of  South  Carolina  herself?  If  he  was  not 
mistaken  in  his  judgment  of  the  political  signs 
of  the  times,  and  if  tne  information  which  came 
to  him  was  to  be  relied  on,  a  day  would  come, 
and  that  not  yery  distant  neither^  when  the 
senator  would  not  dare  to  rise  in  hjs  place  and 
presume  to  speak  as  he  had  this  day  done,  as 
the  organ  of  the  gallant  people  of  the  State  he 
represented." 

The  concluding  remark  of  Mr.  Clay  was 
founded  on  the  belief,  countenanced  by  many 
signs,  that  the  State  of  South  Carolina  would 
not  go  with  Mr.  Calhoun  in  support  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren ;  but  he  was  mistaken.  The  State  stood 
by  her  distinguished  senator,  and  even  gaye  her 
presidential  vote  for  Mr.  Van  Buren  at  the  en- 
suing election — being  the  first  time  she  had 
yoted  in  a  presidential  election  since  1829.  Mr. 
Qrundy,  and  some  other  senators,  put  an  end 
to  this  episodical  and  personal  debate  by  turning 
the  Senate  to  a  yote  on  the  bill  before  it. 


124 


THUCTY  TKARar  VIEW 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

INDEPENDENT  TBEABUBT,  oi,  DIYOSOE  OF  BANK 
AND  STATE:  PASSED  IN  THE  SENATE:  LOST 
IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  BEPBESENTATIYES. 

This  g;reat  measnie  oonsisted  of  two  distiiict 
parts :  1.  The  keeping  of  the  public  moneys : 
2.  The  hard  money  currency  in  which  they 
were  to  be  paid.  The  two  measures  together 
completed  the  system  of  financial  reform  recom- 
mended by  the  President.  The  adoption  of 
either  of  them  singly  would  be  a  step— and  a 
step  going  half  the  distance-^towards  establish- 
ing the  whole  system:  and  as  it  was  well  sup- 
posed that  some  of  the  democratic  party  would 
balk  at  the  hard  money  payments,  it  was  de- 
termined to  propose  the  measures  singly.  With 
this  Tiew  the  committee  reported  a  bill  for  the 
Independent  Treasury — that  is  to  say,  for  the 
keeping  of  the  government  moneys  by  its  own 
ofScers — without  designating  the  currency  to 
be  paid  to  them.  But  there  was  to  be  a  loss 
either  way;  for  unless  the  hard  money  pay- 
ments were  made  a  part  of  the  act  in  the  first 
instance,  Mr.  Calhoun  and  some  of  his  friends 
could  not  TOte  for  it.  He  therefore  moved  an 
amendment  to  that  efiect ;  and  the  hard  money 
friends  of  the  administration  supporting  his 
motion,  although  preferring  that  it  had  not  been 
made,  and  some  others  voting  for  it  as  making 
the  bill  obnoxious  to  some  other  friends  of  the 
administration,  it  was  carried;  and  became  a 
part  of  the  bill.  At  the  last  moment,  and  when 
the  bill  had  been  perfected  as  fiu*  as  possible  by 
its  friends,  and  the  final  vote  on  its  passage  was 
ready  to  be  taken,  a  motion  was  made  to  strike 
out  that  section — and  carried — by  the  helping 
vote  of  some  of  the  friends  of  the  administration 
— as  was  well  remarked  by  Mr.  Calhoun.  The 
vote  was,  for  striking  out — Messrs,  Bayard,  Bu- 
chanan, Clay  of  Kentucky,  Clayton  (Jno.  M.), 
Crittenden,  Cuthbert,  Davis  of  Mississippi,  Ful- 
ton, Grundy,  Knight,  M^ean,  Merrick,  Morris, 
Nicholas,  Prentiss,  Preston,  Rives,  Bobbins, 
Bobinson,  Buggies,  Sevier,  Smith,  of  Indiana, 
Southard,  Spence,  Swift,  Talmadge,  Tipton, 
Wall,  White,  Webster,  Williams— 31.  On  the 
other  hand  only  twenty-one  senators  voted  for 
retaining  the  clause.  They  were — Afesfrf.  Allen, 


of  Ohio,  Benton,  Brown  of  North  Carolina,  Cal- 
houn, Clay  of  Alabama,  Hubbard  of  New 
Hampshire,  King  of  Alabama,  Linn  of  Mis- 
souri, Lumpkin  of  Geoi^  Lyon  of  Mi<dugan, 
Mouton  of  Louisiana,  Niles,  Korvell,  Franklin 
Pierce,  Roane  of  Virginia,  Smith  of  Connecti- 
cut, Strange  of  North  Carolina,  Trotter  of  Mis- 
sissippi, Bobert  J.  Walker,  Silas  Wri^t^  Tonng 
of  Illinois— 21. 

This  section  being  struck  from  the  bill,  Mr. 
Calhoun  could  no  longer  vote  for  it ;  and  gave 
his  reasons,  which  justice  to  him  requires  to 
be  preserved  in  his  own  words : 

^  On  the  motion  of  the  senator  from  Gkorgia 
(Mr.  Cuthbert),  the  23d  section,  which  pro- 
vides for  the  collection  of  the  dues  c^  tiie  gov- 
ernment in  specie^  was  struck  out,  with  the  aid 
of  a  few  on  this  side,  and  the  entire  oppoeition 
to  the  divorce  on  the  other.  That  section  pro- 
vided for  the  repeal  of  the  joint  resolution  of 
1816,  which  authorises  the  receipt  of  bank 
notes  as  cash  in  the  dues  of  the  public  The 
effects  of  this  will  be.  should  the  bill  pass  in  its 
present  shape,  that  the  ^vemment  will  collect 
its  revenue  and  make  its  disbursements  ex- 
clusively in  bank  notes;  as  it  did  before  the 
suspension  took  place  in  May  last  Thii:^  will 
stand  precisely  as  they  dia  then,  with  but  a 
single  exception,  that  the  public  deposits  wiU 
be  made  with  the  officers  of  the  govenunejit 
instead  of  the  banks,  under  the  provision  of  the 
deposit  act  of  1836.  Thus  &r  is  certain.  All 
agree  that  such  is  the  fact ;  and  such  the  efiect 
of  the  passage  of  this  bill  as  it  stands.  Now. 
he  intended  to  show  conclusively,  that  the  dif- 
ference between  depositing  the  public  money 
with  the  public  officers,  or  with  the  banks 
themselves,  was  merely  nominal,  as  £u*  as  the 
operation  and  profits  of  the  banks  were  con- 
cerned; that  they  would  not  make  one  cent 
less  profit,  or  issue  a  single  dollar  less,  if  the 
deposits  be  kept  by  the  officers  of  the  govern- 
ment instead  of  themselves ;  and,  of  course,  that 
the  system  would  be  equally  sumect  to  expan- 
sions and  contractions,  and  e^uuly  exposed  to 
catastrophes  like  the  present,  m  the  onO)  as  the 
other,  mode  of  keeping. 

*^  But  he  had  other  and  insuperable  objections. 
In  giving  the  bill  originally  his  support  he  was 
governed  by  a  deep  conviction  that  tne  total 
separation  of  the  government  and  the  hanks 
was  indispensable.  He  firmlv  believed  that  we 
had  reached  a  point  where  the  separation  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  save  both  government 
and  banks.  He  was  under  a  strong  impression 
that  the  banking  system  had  reached  a  point  of 
decrepitude— that  great  and  important  changes 
were  necessary  to  save  it  and  prevent  convul- 
sions ;  and  tliat  the  first  step  was  a  perpetual 
separation  between  them  and  the  government 
But  there  could  be,  in  his  opinion,  no  separation 


ANNO  1888.    XABTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PBE8IDBNT. 


125 


—no  drrarce— without  oolledking  the  public 
dues  in  the  legal  and  constitotional  conency  of 
the  oonntiy.  Without  that,  all  would  prove  a 
perfect  delusion ;  as  this  bill  would  proye  should 
It  pass.  We  had  no  constitutional  right  to  treat 
the  notes  of  mere  priyate  corporations  as  cash ; 
and  if  we  did,  nothing  would  be  done. 


'^  These  views,  and  many  others  similar,  he 
had  openly  expressed,  in  which  the  great  body 
of  the  gentlemen  around  him  had  concurred. 
We  stand  openly  pledged  to  them  before  the 
country  and  the  world.  We  had  fought  the 
battle  manfully  and  successfully.  The  cause 
was  good,  and  having  stood  the  first  shock,  no- 
thing was  necessary,  but  firmness;  standing 
fut  on  our  position  to  ensure  victory — a  great 
and  glorious  victory  in  a  noble  cause,  which 
was  calculated  to  effect  a  more  important  re- 
formation in  the  condition  of  society  than  any 
in  our  time — ^he,  for  one,  could  not  aeree  to 
terminate  all  those  mighty  efforts,  at  wis  and 
the  extra  session,  by  returning  to  a  complete 
and  perfect  reunion  with  the  banks  in  the  worst 
and  most  dangerous  form.  He  would  not  belie 
all  that  he  had  said  and  done,  by  voting  for  the 
bill  as  it  now  stood  amended ;  and  to  terminate 
that  which  was  so  gloriously  begun,  in  so  miser- 
able a  farce.  He  could  not  but  feel  deeply  dis- 
appointed in  what  he  had  reason  to  apprehend 
would  be  the  result — to  have  all  our  efforts  and 
labor  thrown  away,  and  the  hopes  of  the  coun- 
try disappointed.  All  would  be  lost  I  No ;  he 
expressed  himself  too  strongly.  Be  the  vote 
what  it  may,  the  discussion  would  stand  Light 
had  gone  abroad.  The  public  mind  had  been 
aroused,  for  the  first  time,  and  directed  to  this 
great  subject  The  intelligence  of  the  country 
is  every  where  busy  in  exploring  its  depths  and 
intricacies,  and  would  not  cease  to  investigate 
*  till  all  its  labyrinths  were  traced.  The  seed 
that  has  been  sown  will  sprout  and  grow  to 
maturity ;  the  revolution  that  has  been  begun 
will  go  through,  be  our  course  what  it  may." 

The  vote  was  then  taken  on  the  passage  of 
the  bill,  and  it  was  carried — ^by  the  lean  major- 
ity of  two  votes,  which  was  only  the  difference 
of  one  voter.  The  afOrmative  vote  was :  Messrs. 
AlleUy  Benton,  Brown,  Clay  of  Alabama,  Cuth- 
bert,  Fulton,  Hubbard,  King,  linn,  Lumpkin, 
Lyon,  Morris,  Mouton,  Niles,  Norvell,  Pierce, 
Roane,  Robinson,  Sevier,  Smith  of  Connecti- 
cut, Strange,  Trotter,  Walker,  Wall,  Williams, 
Wright,  Young— 27.  The  negatives  were  : 
Messrs.  Bayard,  Buchanan,  Calhoun,  Clay  of 
Kentucky,  Clayton,  Crittenden,  Davies,  Grun- 
dy, Knight,  McKean,  Merrick,  Nicholas,  Pren- 
tss,  Preston,  Rives,  Bobbins,  Ruggles,  Smith 
of  Indiana,  Southard,  Spence,  Swift,  Talmadge, 
Tipton,  Webster,  Hugh  L.  White— 25. 

The  act  having  passed  the  Senate  by  this 


dender  majority  was  sent  to  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives ;  where  it  was  lost  by  a  n^jority 
of  14.  This  was  a  dose  vote  fai  a  house  of  236 
present ;  and  the  bill  was  only  lost  by  several 
fnends  of  the  administration  voting  witii  the 
entire  opposition.  But  a  great  point  was 
gained.  Full  discussion  had  been  had  upon 
the  subject,  and  the  public  mind  was  waked 
up  to  it 


OHAPTEB   XXX. 

PUBLIC  LAZmS:  GRADUATION  OF  PRIGS:    PlUb> 

SBftPTION  BT8TEM:  TAXATION  WHEN  BOLD. 

For  all  the  new  States  composed  territory  be- 
longing, or  chiefly  so  to  the  federal  government, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  became  the 
local  legislature,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  place  of  a 
local  legislature  in  all  the  legislation  that  re- 
lates to  the  primaiy  disposition  of  the  soil.  In 
the  old  States  this  legislation  belonged  to  the 
State  legislatures,  and  might  have  belonged  to 
the  new  States  in  virtue  of  their  State  sove- 
reignty except  by  the  ^  compacts  ^^  with  the 
federal  government  at  the  time  of  their  admis- 
sion into  the  Union,  in  which  they  bound  them- 
selves, in  consideration  of  land  and  money 
grants  deemed  equivalent  to  the  value  of  the 
surrendered  rights,  not  to  interfere  with  the 
primary  disposition  of  the  public  lands,  nor  to 
tax  them  while  remaining  unsold,  nor  for  five 
years  thereafter.  These  grants,  though  accept- 
ed as  equivalents  in  the  infimcy  of  the  States, 
were  soon  found  to  be  vexy  hr  from  it,  even  in 
a  mere  moneyed  point  of  view,  independent  of 
the  evils  resulting  from  the  administration  of 
domestic  local  questions  by  a  distant  national 
legislature.  The  taxes  alone  for  a  few  years  on 
the  public  lands  would  have  been  equivalent  to 
all  the  benefits  derived  from  the  grants  in  the 
compacts.  Composed  of  citizens  from  the  old 
States  where  a  local  legislature  administered 
the  public  lands  according  to  the  local  interests 
— selling  lands  of  diflerent  qualities  for  different 
prices,  according  to  its  quality — granting  pre- 
emptions and  donations  to  first  settlers — and 
sul^ecting  air  to  taxation  as  soon  as  it  became 
public  property;  it  yras  a  national  feeling  to 
desire  the  same  advantages ;  and  for  this  pur- 
pose, incessant)  and  nsoally  vain  efforts  were 


126 


THIRTT  TEARS'  VIEW, 


made  to  obtain  them- from  Congress.  At  this 
session  (1837''38)  a  better  progress  was  made, 
and  bills  passed  for  all  the  purposes  through 
the  Senate. 

1.  The  graduation  bill.  This  measure  had 
been  proposed  for  twelve  years,  and  the  full 
system  embraced  a  plan  for  the  speedy  and 
final  extinction  of  the  federal  title  to  all  the 
lands  within  the  new  States.  Periodical  reduc- 
tions of  price  at  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  acre 
until  reduced  to  25  cents :  a  preference  in  the 
purchase  to  actual  settlers,  constituting  a  pre- 
emption right :  donations  to  destitute  settlers : 
and  the  cession  of  the  refuse  to  States  in  which 
they  lay: — ^these  were  the  provisions  which 
constituted  the  system  and  which  were  all  con- 
tained in  the  first  bills.  But  finding  it  impos- 
sible to  carry  all  the  provisions  of  the  system 
in  any  one  bill,  it  became  necessary  to  secure 
what  could  be  obtained.  The  graduation-bill 
was  reduced  to  one  feature — reduction  of  price ; 
and  that  limited  to  two  reductions,  bringing 
down  the  price  at  the  first  reduction  to  one 
dollar  per  acre:  at  the  next  75  cents  per 
acre.  In  support  of  this  bill  Mr.  Benton  made 
a  brief  speech,  from  which  the  following  are 
some  passages : 

•*  The  bill  comes  to  us  now  under  more  fevor- 
able  auspices  than  it  has  ever  done  before.  The 
President  recommends  it,  and  the  Treasury 
needs  the  money  which  it  will  produce.  A 
gentleman  of  the  opposition  [Mr.  Glat],  re- 
proaches the  President  for  inconsistency  in 
making  this  recommendation ;  he  says  that  he 
voted  against  it  as  senator  heretofore,  and  re- 
commends it  as  President  now.  But  the  gen- 
tleman forgets  so  tell  us  that  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
when  a  member  of  the  Senate,  spoke  in  favor 
of  the  general  object  of  the  bill  from  the  first 
day  it  was  presented,  and  that  he  voted  in  favor 
of  one  degree  of  reduction — a  reduction  of  the 
price  of  the  public  lands  to  one  dollar  per  acre 
— ^the  last  session  that  he  served  here.  Far 
from  being  inconsistent,  the  President^  in  this 
recommendation,  has  only  carried  out  to  their 
legitimate  conclusions  the  principles  which  he 
formerly  expressed,  and  the  vote  which  he  for- 
merly gave. 

^  The  bill,  as  modified  on  the  motions  of  the 
senators  from  Tennessee  and  New  Hampshh^ 
[Messrs.  Grundy  and  Hubbard]  stands  shorn 
of  half  its  original  provisions.    Originally  it 


embraced  four  degrees  of  reduction ,  it  now  con- 
tains but  two  of  those  degrees.  The  two  last — 
the  fifty  cent,  and  the  twenty-five  cent  reduc- 
tions, have  been  cut  off.  I  made  no  objection 
to  the  motions  of  those  gentlemen.  I  knew 
them  to  be  made  in  a  friendly  spirit ;  I  knew 
also  that  the  success  of  their  motions  was  neces- 
sary to  the  success  of  any  part  of  the  bill.  Cer- 
tainly I  would  have  preferred  the  whole — would 
have  preferred  the  four  degrees  of  reductioa 
But  this  is  a  case  in  which  the  homely  maxim 
applies,  that  half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no  bread. 
By  giving  up  half  the  bill,  we  may  gain  the  other 
half;  and  sure  I  am  that  our  constituents  will 
vastly  prefer  half  to  nothing.  The  lands  may 
now  be  reduced  to  one  dollar  for  those  whidi 
have  been  five  years  in  market,  and  to  seventy- 
five  cents  for  those  which  have  been  ten  years 
in  market.  The  rest  of  the  bill  is  I'elinquished 
for  the  present,  not  abandoned  for  ever.  The 
remaining  degrees  of  reduction  will  be  brought 
forward  hereafter,  and  with  a  better  prospect  of 
success,  after  the  lands  have  been  picked  and 
culled  over  under  the  prices  of  the  present  bilL 
Even  if  the  clauses  had  remained  which  ha\« 
been  struck  out,  on  the  motions  of  the  gentle- 
men from  Tennessee  and  New  Hampshire,  it 
would  have  been  two  years  from  December 
next,  before  any  purchases  could  have  been  made 
under  them.  They  were  not  to  take  eJBTcct  until 
December,  1840.  Before  that  time  Congress 
will  twice  sit  again;  and  if  the  present  bill 
passes,  and  is  found  to  work  well,  the  enactment 
of  the  present  rejected  clauses  will  be  a  matter 
of  course. 

^  This  is  a  measure  emphatically  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  agricultural  interest — that  great  inte^ 
est,  which  he  declared  to  be  the  foundation  of 
all  national  prosperity,  and  the  backbone,  and 
substratum  of  every  other  interest — ^which  was. 
in  the  body  politic,  front  rank  for  service,  and 
rear  rank  for  reward — which  bore  nearly  all  the 
burthens  of  government  while  carrying  the  go- 
vernment on  its. back — ^which  was  the  fountain 
of  good  production,  while  it  was  the  pack-horse 
of  burthens,  and  the  broad  shoulders  which  re- 
ceived nearly  all  losses — especially  from  broken 
banks.  This  bill  was  for  them ;  and,  in  voting 
for  it,  he  had  but  one  regret,  and  that  was,  that 
it  did  not  go  far  enough — that  it  was  not  equal 
to  their  merits." 

The  bill  passed  by  a  good  majority — 27  to 


ANXO  1888.    MABTIN  YAII^  BUBEN,  PREBIDEirr. 


127 


16 ;  but  fiuled  to  be  acted  upon  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  though  fayorablj  reported 
upon  by  its  committee  on  the  public  lands. 

2.  The  pre-emptiye  system.  The  proyisions 
of  the  bill  were  simple,  being  merely  to  secure 
tlie  priyilege  of  first  purchase  to  the  settler  on 
any  lands  to  which  the  Indian  title  had  been 
extinguished;  to  be  paid  for  at  the  minimum 
price  of  the  public  lands  at  the  time.  A  senator 
from  Maryland,  Mr.  Merrick,  moved  to  amend 
the  bill  by  confining  its  benefits  to  citizens  of 
the  United  States — excluding  unnaturalized 
foreigners.  Mr.  Benton  opposed  this  motion, 
in  a  brief  speech. 

'^  He  was  entirely  opposed  to  the  amendment 
of  the  senator  from  Maryland  (Mr.  Merrick). 
It  proposed  something  new  in  our  legislation. 
It  proposed  to  make  a  distinction  between  aliens 
and  citizens  in  the  acquisition  of  property. 
Pre-emption  rights  had  been  granted  since  the 
formation  of  the  government ;  and  no  distinc- 
tion, until  now,  had  been  proposed,  between  the 
persons,  or  classes  of  persons,  to  whom  they 
were  granted.  No  law  had  yet  excluded  aliens 
from  the  acquisition  of  a  pre-emption  right,  and 
he  was  entirely  opposed  to  commencing  a  sys- 
tem of  legislation  which  w'as  to  affect  the  pro- 
perty rights  of  the  aliens  who  came  to  our 
oountry  to  make  it  their  home.  Political  rights 
rested  on  a  different  basis.  They  involved  the 
management  of  the  government,  and  it  was  right 
that  foreigners  should  undergo  the  process  of 
naturalization  before  they  acquired  the  right  of 
sharing  in  the  government.  But  the  acquisition 
of  property  was  another  affair.  It  was  a  private 
and  personal  affair.  It  involved  no  question  but 
that  of  the  subsistence,  the  support,  and  the 
comfortable  living  of  the  alien  and  his  fiunily. 
Mr.  B.  would  be  agunst  the  principle  of  the 
proposed  amendment  in  any  case,  but  he  was 
particularly  opposed  to  this  case.  Who  were 
the  aliens  whom  it  proposed  to  affect?  Not 
those  who  are  described  as  paupers  and  crimi- 
nals, infesting  the  purlieus  of  the  cities,  but 
those  who  had  gone  to  the  remote  new  States, 
and  to  the  remote  parts  of  those  States,  and 
Into  the  depths  of  the  wilderness,  and  there 
commenced  the  cultivation  of  the  earth.  These 
were  the  description  of  aliens  to  be  affected; 
and  if  the  amendment  was  adopted,  they  would 
be  excluded  from  a  pre-emption  right  in  the 
soil  they  were  cultivating,  and  made  to  wait 


until  they  were  naturalized.  The  senator  from 
Maryland  (Mr.  Merrick),  treats  this  as  a  case 
of  bounty.  He  treats  the  pre-emption  right  u 
a  bounty  from  the  government,  and  says  that 
aliens  have  no  right  to  this  bounty.  But,  is  this 
correct?  Is  the  pre-emption  a  bounty?  Far 
from  it.  In  point  of  money,  the  pre-emptioner 
pays  about  as  much  as  any  other  purchaser. 
He  pays  the  government  price,  one  dollar  and 
twenty-five  cents ;  and  the  table  of  land  sales 
proves  that  nobody  pays  any  more,  or  so  little 
more  that  it  is  nothing  in  a  national  point  of 
view.  One  dollar  twenty-seven  and  a  half  cents 
per  acre  is  the  average  of  all  the  sales  for  fifteen 
years.  The  twenty  millions  of  acres  sold  to 
speculators  in  the  year  1836,  all  went  at  one 
dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre.  The 
pre-emption  then  is  not  a  bounty,  but  a  sale,  and  < 
a  sale  for  fuU  price,  and,  what  is  more,  for  solid 
money ;  for  pre-emptioners  pay  with  gold  and 
silver,  and  not  with  bank  credits.  Numerous 
were  the  emigrants  from  (Germany,  France,  Ire- 
land, and  other  countries,  now  in  the  West,  and 
especially  in  Missouri,  and  he  (Mr.  B.)  had  no 
idea  of  imposing  any  legal  disability  upon  them 
in  the  acquisition  of  property.  He  wished  them 
all  well.  If  any  of  them  had  settled  upon  the 
public  lands,  so  much  the  better.  It  was  an 
evidence  of  their  intention  to  become  citizens, 
and  their  labor  upon  the  soil  would  add  to  its 
product  and  to  the  national  wealth." 

The  motion  of  Mr.  Merrick  was  rejected  by 
a  majority  of  13.  The  yeas  were :  Messrs. 
Bayard,  Clay  of  Kentucky,  Clayton,  Crittenden, 
Davis,  Knight,  Merrick,  Prentiss,  Preston,  Rives, 
Bobbins,  Smith,  of  Indiana,  Southard,  Spence, 
Tallmadge,  Tepton,  15.  The  nays  were :  Messrs. 
Allen,  Benton,  Brown,  Buchanan,  Calhoun,  Clay, 
of  Alabama,  Cuthbert,  Fulton,  Grundy,  Hub- 
bard, King,  Linn,  Lumpkin,  Lyon,  Mautcm, 
Nicholas,  Niles,  Nowell,  Pierce,  Roane,  Robin- 
son, Sevier,  Walker,  Webster,  White,  Williams, 
Wright,  Young,  of  Illinois,  (28.)  The  bUl  being 
then  put  to  the  vote,  was  passed  by  a  majority 
of  14. 

3.  Taxation  of  public  lands  when  sold. 
When  the  United  States  first  instituted  their 
land  system,  the  sales  were  upon  credit,  at  a 
minimum  price  of  two  dollars,  payable  in  four 
equal  annual  payments,  with  a  liability  to  revert 
if  there  should  be  any  failure  in  the  payments. 
During  that  time  it  was  considered  as  publio 


128 


THIBT7  YEASff  Vlifiw. 


land,  nor  was  the  title  passed  until  the  patent 
issoed — which  might  be  a  year  longer.  Five 
jeara,  therefore,  was  the  period  fixed,  during 
which  the  land  so  sold  should  be  exempt  from 
taxation  by  the  State  in  which  it  lay.  This 
continued  to  be  the  mode  of  sale,  until  the  year 
1821,  when  the  credit  was  changed  for  the  cash 
system,  and  the  minimum  price  reduced  to  one 
dollar  twenty-five  cents  per  acre.  The  reason 
for  the  fire  years  exemption  from  state  taxation 
had  then  ceased,  but  the  compacts  remaining 
unaltered,  the  exemption  continued.  Repeated 
applications  were  made  to  Congress  to  consent 
to  the  modification  of  the  compacts  in  that  arti- 
cle ;  but  always  in  vain.  At  this  session  the 
application  was  renewed  on  the  part  of  the  new 
States ;  and  with  success  in  the  Senate,  where 
the  bill  for  that  purpose  passed  nearly  unani- 
mously, the  negatiTes  being  but  four,  to  wit: 
Messrs.  Brown,  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  Clayton, 
Southard.  Being  sent  to  the  H.  B.  it  remained 
there  without  action  till  the  end  of  the  session. 


CHAPTEB    XXXI. 

SPECIE  BASIS  FOB  BANKS:  ONE  THIBD  OF  THE 
AlfOUin"  OF  LIABILITIES  THE  LOWEST  SAFE 
PKOPOBTION:  SPEECH  OF  ME.  BENTON  ON  THE 
BECHABTEE  OF  THE  DISTBICTT  BANES. 

This  is  a  point  of  great  moment — one  on  which 
the  public  mind  has  not  been  sufficiently 
awakened  in  this  country,  though  well  under- 
stood and  duly  valued  in  England.  The  char- 
ters of  banks  in  the  United  States  are  usually 
drawn  on  this  principle,  that  a  certain  propor- 
tion of  the  capital,  and  sometimes  the  whole  of 
it,  shall  be  paid  up  m  gold  or  silver  before  the 
charter  shall  take  effect.  This  is  the  usual  pro- 
vision, without  any  obligation  on  the  bank  to 
retain  any  part  of  this  specie  after  it  gets  into 
operation;  and  this  provision  has  too  often 
proved  to  be  illusory  and  deceptive.  In  many 
cases,  the  banks  have  borrowed  the  requisite 
amount  for  a  day,  and  then  returned  it;  in 
many  other  cases,  the  proportion  of  specie, 
though  paid  up  in  good  faith,  is  immediately 
lent  out,  or  parted  with.  The  result  to  the 
public  is  about  the  same  in  both  cases;  the 
hank  has  little  or  no  specie,  and  its  plaoe  is 


supplied  by  the  notes  of  other  banks.  The 
great  vice  of  the  banking  system  in  the  United 
States  is  in  banking  upon  p^)er — upon  the 
paper  of  each  othei^-and  treating  this  paper  aa 
cash.  This  may  be  safe  among  the  banks  them- 
selves ;  it  may  enable  them  to  settle  with  one 
another,  and  to  liquidate  reciprocal  balances; 
but  to  the  public  it  is  nothing.  In  the  event 
of  a  run  upon  a  bank,  or  a  general  run  upon  all 
banks,  it  is  specie,  and  not  paper,  that  is  wanted. 
It  is  spede,  and  not  paper,  which  the  pnblie 
want,  and  must  have. 

The  motion  of  the  senator  from  Pennaylvania 
[Mr.  Buchanan]  is  intended  to  remedy  this 
vice  in  these  District  banks ;  it  is  intended  to 
impose  an  obligatx>n  on  these  banks  to  ke^  in 
their  vaults  a  quantum  of  specie  beariag  a  cer- 
tain proportion  to  the  amount  of  their  inune- 
diate  liabilities  in  circulation  and  dep06it&  The 
gentleman's  motion  is  well  intended,  but  it  is 
defective  in  two  particulars :  first,  in  requirii^ 
the  proportion  to  be  the  one-fourth,  instead  of 
the  one-third,  and  next,  m  making  it  apply  to 
the  private  deposits  only.  The  tme  propor- 
tion is  one-third,  and  this  to  apply  to  all  the 
drculation  and  deposits,  except  those  vrbkh  axt 
special  This  proportion  has  been  fixed  for  a 
hundred  years  at  the  Bank  of  England;  and 
just  so  often  as  that  bank  has  iUlen  below  this 
proportion,  mischief  has  occuned.  This  is  the 
sworn  opinion  of  the  present  Governor  of  the 
Bank  of  Enghmd,  and  of  the  directors  of  that 
institution.  Before  Lord  Althorpe's  committee 
in  1832,  Mr.  Horsley  Pahner,  the  Govem<»'  of 
the  Bank,  testified  in  these  words : 

"*The  average  proportion,  as  already  ob- 
served, of  coin  and  bullion  which  the  bank 
thinks  it  prudent  to  keep  on  hand,  is  at  the 
rate  of  a  &ird  of  the  total  amount  of  all  her 
liabilities,  including  deposits  as  well  as  issues.' 
Mr.  Geoi^ge  Ward  Norman,  a  director  of  the 
bank,  states  the  same  thing  in  a  different  form 
of  words.  He  says :  'For  a  full  state  of  the 
circulation  and  the  deposits^  say  twenty-one 
millions  of  notes  and  six  millions  of  deposits, 
makine  in  the  whole  twenty-seven  millions  or 
liabilities,  the  proper  sum  in  coin  and  bullion 
for  the  bank  to  retain  is  nine  millions.'  Thus, 
the  average  proportion  oi  one-third  between  the 
specie  on  hand  and  the  circulation  and  deposits, 
must  be  considered  as  an  established  principle 
at  that  bank,  which  is  quite  the  lar^t,  and 
amongst  the  oldest — probably,  the  very  oldest 
bank  of  circulation  in  the  world." 

The  Bank  of  Engknd  is  noc  merely  required 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  FBiSIBENT. 


129 


to  keep  on  huid,  in  bullion,  the  one-third  of  its 
immediate  liabililies ;  it  is  boand  also  to  let  the 
conntry  see  that  it  has,  or  has  not,  that  propor- 
tion on  hand.  By  an  act  of  the  third  year  of 
William  lY.,  it  is  required  to  make  quarteriy 
poblications  of  the  average  of  the  weekly  liabil- 
ities of  the  bank,  that  the  public  may  see  when- 
ever it  descends  below  the  point  of  safety. 
Here  is  the  last  of  these  puUications,  which  is 
a  lull  eaempliflcation  of  the  role  and  the  policy 
which  now  gorems  that  bank : 

Quarterly  average  of  the  weekly  liabilities  and 

assets  of  the  Bank  of  England,  from  the  12th 

December,  1837,  to  the  6th  of  liarch,  1838, 

both  inclusive,  published  pursuant  to  the  act 

'  3  and  William  IT.,  cap.  98 : 

'  LUbUitl«& 

I         Circnlation,  Jei8,600,000    Secarities, 
Deponta,         11,536,000    BnllioD, 


£22,792,900 
10,015,000 


£30,185,000 
Londtm,  Mardk  12. 


£30,807,000 


^  According  to  this  statement,  the  Bank  of 

England  is  now  safe ;  and,  accordingly,  we  see 
that  she  is  acting  upon  the  principle  of  having 
bullion  enough,  for  she  is  shipping  gold  to  the 
United  States. 

The  proportion  in  England  is  one-third.  The 
bank  relies  upon  its  debts  and  other  resources 
ibr  the  other  two-thirds,  in  the  event  of  a  run 
upon  it  This  is  the  rule  in  that  bank  which 
has  more  resources  than  any  other  bank  in  the 
world;  which  is  mtuated  in  the  moneyed  me- 
tropolis of  the  world — the  richest  merchants  its 
debtors,  Mends  and  customers — and  the  Gov- 
ernment of  England  its  debtor  and  backer,  and 
always  ready  to  sustun  it  with  exchequer  bills, 
and  with  every  exertion  of  its  credit  and  means. 
Such  a  bank,  so  situated  and  so  aided,  still 
deems  it  necessary  to  its  safety  to  keep  in  hand 
always  the  one-third  in  bulHon  of  the  amount 
of  its  immediate  liabilities.  Now,  if  the  propor- 
tion of  one-third  is  necessary  to  the  safety  of 
such  a  bank,  with  such  resources,  how  is  it  pos- 
sible for  our  banks,  with  their  meagre  resources 
and  small  array  of  Mends,  to  be  safe  with  a 
less  proportion  7 

This  is  the  rule  at  the  Bank  of  England,  and 
just  as  often  as  it  has  been  departed  fix>m,  the 
danger  of  that  departure  has  been  proved.  It 
was  departed  from  in  1797,  when  the  proportion 
sunk  to  the  one-serenth ;  and  what  wis  the  re- 
sult? The  stoppage  of  tho  banks,  and  of  all  the 
Vol.  II._9 


banks  in  En^and,  and  a  suspension  of  specie 
pajments  for  six-and-iwenty  years!  It  waa 
departed  from  again  about  a  year  ago,  when  tl» 
proportion  sunk  to  one-eighth  nearly ;  and  what 
was  the  result!  A  death  struggle  between  the 
paper  systems  of  Eng^d  and  the  United  States^ 
in  whidi  our  system  was  sacrificed  to  save  hers. 
Her  system  was  sayed  from  exptosion !  but  at 
what  cost  ?— at  viiiat  cost  to  us,  and  to  herself? 
— ^to  us  a  general  stoppage  of  all  the  banks  for 
twelve  months ;  to  the  English,  a  general  stag- 
nation of  business,  decline  of  manuikctures,  and 
of  commerce,  much  individual  distress)  and  a 
loss  of  two  millions  sterling  of  revenue  to  the 
Grown.  The  proportion  of  one-third  may  then 
be  assumed  as  the  point  of  safety  in  the  Bank 
of  England ;  less  than  that  proportion  cannot 
be  safe  in  the  United  States.  Tet  the  senator 
from  Pennsylvania  proposes  less^-he  proposes 
the  one-fourth ;  and  proposes  it,  not  because  he 
feels  it  to  be  the  right  proportion,  but  from 
some  feeling  of  indulgence  or  forbearance  to 
this  poor  District  Now,  I  think  that  this  is  a 
case  in  whidb  kind  feelings  can  have  no  place^ 
and  that  the  point  in  question  is  one  upon  which 
there  can  be  no  compromise.  A  bank  is  a  bank, 
whether  made  in  a  district  or  a  State;  and  a 
bank  ought  to  be  safe,  whether  the  stockholders 
be  rich  or  poor.  Safety  is  the  point  aimed  at, 
and  nothing  unsafe  should  be  tolerated.  There 
shoidd  be  no  giving  and  taking  below  the  pcHnt 
of  safety.  Experienced  men  fix  upon  the  one- 
third  as  the  safe  proportion;  we  should  not^ 
therefore,  take  a  less  pn^rtion.  Would  the 
gentleman  ask  to  let  the  water  in  the  boiler  of 
a  steamboat  sink  one  inch  lower,  when  the  ex- 
perienced captain  informed  him  that  it  had 
already  sunk  as  low  as  it  was  safe  to  go?  Cer- 
tainly not  So  of  these  banks.  One-third  is 
the  point  of  safety;  let  ns  not  tamper  with 
danger  by  descending  to  the  one-fourth. 

When  a  bank  stops  payment^  the  first  thing 
we  see  is  an  exposition  of  its  means,  and  a  de- 
claration of  ultimate  ability  to  pay  all  its  debts. 
This  is  nothing  to  the  holders  of  its  notes.  Im- 
mediate ability  is  the  only  ability  that  is  of  any 
avail  to  them.  The  fright  of  some,  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  others,  compel  them  to  part  with 
their  notes.  Cool,  sagacious  capitalists  can 
look  to  ultimate  ability,  and  buy  up  the  notes 
from  the  necessitous  and  the  alarmed.  To  them 
ultimate  ability  is  sufficient ;  to  the  community 


130 


TBSBTY  YJLABB*  YXKW. 


it  is  nothing.  It  is,  therefore,  for  the  henefit  of 
the  commumty  that  the  haoks  should  be  re- 
quired to  keep  always  on  band  the  one-third  of 
their  drcolation  and  deposits;  they  are  then 
trusted  for  two-thirds,  ind  this  is  carrying 
credit  far  enough.  If  pressed  by  a  run,  it  is  as 
much  as  a  bank  can  do  to  make  up  the  other 
two- thirds  out  of  the  debts  due  to  her.  Three 
to  one  is  credit  enough,  and  it  is  profit  enough. 
If  a  bank  draws  interest  upon  three  dollars 
when  it  has  but  one,  this  is  eighteen  per  cent, 
and  ought  to  content  her.  A  citizen  cannot 
lend  his  money  for  more  than  six  per  cent.,  and 
cannot  the  banks  be  contented  with  eighteen  ? 
Must  they  insist  upon  issuing  four  dollars,  or 
even  fiye,  upon  one,  so  as  to  draw  twenty-four 
or  thirty  per  cent ;  and  thus,  after  paying  their 
officers  vast  salaries,  and  aooommodating  friends 
with  loans  on  easy  terms,  still  make  enough 
out  of  the  business  community  to  coyer  ail  ex- 
penses and  all  losses :  and  then  to  diride  lai^r 
profits  than  can  be  made  at  any  other  busmess  f 

The  issuing  of  currency  is  the  prerogatiye  of 
soyereignty.  The  real  soyereign  in  this  coun- 
try— ^the  goyemmentr— can  only  issue  a  cur- 
rency of  the  actual  dollar:  can  only  issue  gold 
and  silyer^-and  each  piece  worth  its  fiu».  The 
banks  which  haye  the  priyilege  of  issuing  curren- 
cy issue  paper ;  and  not  content  with  two  more 
dollars  out  for  one  that  is,  they  go  to  five,  ten, 
twenty — ^failing  of  course  on  the  first  run ;  and 
the  loss  falling  upon  the  holders  of  its  notes — 
and  especially  the  holders  of  the  small  notes. 

We  now  touch  a  point,  said  Mr.  B.,  yital  to 
the  safety  of  banking,  and  I  hope  it  will  neither 
be  passed  oyer  without  decision,  nor  decided  in 
an  erroneous  manner.  We  had  up  the  same 
question  two  years  ago,  in  the  discussion  of  the 
bill  to  regulate  the  keeping  of  the  public  moneys 
by  the  local  deposit  banks.  A  senator  from 
Massachusetts  (Mr.  Wkbstkb)  moyed  the 
question;  he  (Mr.  B.)  cordially  concurred  in 
it^  and  the  proportion  of  OM-fourth  was  then 
inserted.  He  {Mr.  B.)  had  not  seen  at  that 
time  the  testimony  of  the  goyemor  and  direc- 
tors of  the  Bank  of  England,  fixing  on  the  one- 
third  as  the  proper  proportion,  and  he  presum- 
ed that  the  senator  firam  Massachusetts  (Mr. 
W.)  had  not  then  seen  it,  as  on  another  occasion 
he  quoted  it  with  approbation,  and  stated  it  to 
be  the  proportion  obsenred  at  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.     The  proportion  of  one-fourth 


was  then  inserted  in  the  deposit  Inll;  it  ^ 
erroneous  proportion,  but  even  that  pitq)ortion 
was  not  allowed  to  stand.  After  haying  been 
inserted  in  the  bill,  it  was  struck  out;  and  it 
was  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  fix  the  proportion.  To  this  I  then 
objected,  and  gaye  my  reasons  for  it.  I  was  for 
fixing  the  proportion,  because  I  held  it  yital  to 
the  EMifety  of  the  deposit  banks ;  I  was  against 
leaying  it  to  the  secretary,  because  it  was  a  cast 
in  which  the  inflexible  rule  of  law,  and  not  the 
yariable  dictate  of  indiyidual  discretion  should 
be  exercised ;  and  because  I  was  certain  that  no 
secretary  could  be.  relied  upon  to  compel  the 
banks  to  toe  the  mark,  when  Congress  itself  had 
flinched  firom  the  task  of  making  them  do  it 
My  objections  were  unayuling.  The  proportion 
was  struck  out  of  the  bill ;  the  discretion  of  the 
secretary  to  fix  it  was  substituted ;  and  that 
discretion  it  was  impossible  to  exercise  with 
any  efiect  oyer  the  banks.  They  were,  that  is 
to  say,  many  of  them  were,  fiur  beyond  the 
mark  then ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  issuing  of 
the  Treasury  order  in  July,  1836,  there  were 
deposit  banks,  whose  proportion  of  specie  in 
hand  to  their  immediate  liabilities  was  as  ooa 
to  twenty,  one  to  thirty,  one  to  forty,  and  eyai 
one  to  fifty !  The  explosion  of  all  such  banks 
was  ineyitable.  The  issuing  of  the  Treasniy 
order  improyed  them  a  little :  they  b^an  to  inr 
crease  their  specie,  and  to  diminish  their  lia- 
bilities ;  but  the  gap  was  too  wide — the  chasm 
was  too  yast  to  be  filled :  and  at  the  touch  of 
pressure,  all  these  banks  foil  like  nine-pins! 
They  tumbled  down  in  a  heap,  and  lay  there, 
without  the  power  of  motion,  or  scarcely  of 
breathing.  Such  was  the  consequence  of  oar 
error  in  omitting  to  fix  the  proper  propordon 
of  specie  in  hand  to  the  liabilities  of  our  deposit 
banks :  let  us  ayoid  thAt  error  in  the  bill  now 
before  us. 


CHAPTBE   XXXII. 

TBS  NOBTH  AND  THE  BOUTH :  OOMPABATiyB 
PBOflFEEITY:  SOUTHBBN  DIBOONTKNT:  ITS 
TBITB  GAUSS. 

To  show  the  working  of  the  federal  goyemment 
is  the  design  of  this  View— show  how  things 
are  done  under  it  and  theur  e£fect8 ;  that  the 


AKNO  188a  mabun  yas  buren,  president. 


131 


good  may  be  approyed  and  punned,  the  evil 
oondemned  and  avoided,  and  the  macfaine  of 
goremment  be  made  to  work  equally  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  Union,  according  to  the 
^80  and  beneficent  mtent  of  its  founders.  It 
thus  becomes  neoessaiy  to' show  its  working  in 
the  two  great  Atlantic  sections,  originally  sole 
parties  to  the  Union— the  North  and  the  South 
— complained  offer  many  years  on  one  part  as 
unequal  and  oppressiye,  and  made  so  by  a 
course  of  federal  legislation  at  yariance  with  the 
objects  of  the  confederation  and  contraiy  to  the 
intent  or  the  words  of  the  constitution. 

The  writer  of  this  View  sympathised  with 
that  complaint;  belieyed  it  to  be,  to  much  ex- 
tent, well  founded ;  saw  with  concern  the  cor- 
roding effect  it  had  on  the  feelings  of  patriotic 
men  of  the  South ;  and  often  had  to  lament  that 
a  sense  of  duty  to  his  own  constitaents  required 
him  to  give  yotes  which  his  judgment  disaiq[Kroy- 
ed  and  his  feelings  condemiMd.  This  complaint 
existed  when  he  came  into  the  Senate;  it  had, 
in  &ct,  commenced  in  the  first  years  of  the  fede- 
ral government)  at  the  time  of  the  assumption 
of  the  State  debts,  the  incorporaUon  of  the  first 
national  bank,  and  the  adoption  of  the  funding 
system;  all  of  which  drew  capital  fix>m  the 
South  to  the  North.  It  continued  to  increase ; 
and,  at  the  period  to  which  this  chapter  relates, 
it  luid  reached  the  stage  of  an  organised  sec- 
tional expression  in  a  voluntary  convention  of 
the  Southern  States.  It  had  often  been  ex- 
pressed in  Congress,  and  in  the  State  legist 
latures,  and  habitually  in  the  discussions  of  the 
people ;  but  now  it  took  the  more  serious  form 
of  joint  action,  and  exhibited  the  spectacle  of  a 
part  of  the  States  assembling  sectionally  to 
complain  formally  of  the  unequal,  and  to  them, 
iiyurioas  operation  of  the  common  government, 
established  by  common  consent  for  the  common 
good,  and  now  frustrating  its  object  by  depart- 
ing from  the  purposes  of  its  creation.  The  COO" 
yention  was  called  commercial,  and  properly,  as 
the  grievance  complained  of  was  in  its  root 
eommercia],  and  a  commercial  remedy  was  pro- 
posed. 

It  met  at  Augnsta,  Georgia,  and  afterwards 
at  Charleston,  South  Carolioa;  and  the  evil 
complained  of  and  the  remedy  proposed  were 
strongly  set  forth  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
body,  and  in  addresses  to  the  people  of  the 
Sonthem  and  Southwestern  States.  Thediaog* 


ed  relative  condition  of  the  two  sections  of  the 
country,  before  and  siiioe  the  Union,  was  shown 
in  their  general  relative  depression  or  prosperity 
unoe  that  event,  and  especial^  in  the  reversed 
condition  of  their  respective  foreign  import 
trade.  In  the  colonial  condition  the  compari- 
son was  wholly  in  favor  of  the  South;  under 
the  Union  wholly  against  it  Thus,  in  the  year 
1760— only  sixteen  years  before  the  Declaration 
of  Independenoe— the  foreign  imports  into  Yir^ 
ginia  were  £850,000  sterling,  and  into  South 
Carolina  £555,000;  while  into  New  York 
they  were  only  £189,000,  into  Pemisylvania 
£490,000;  and  mto  all  the  New  Ei^land  Ookh 
nies  collectively  only  £561,000. 

These  figures  exhibit  an  immense  superiority 
of  commercial  prosperity  on  the  side  of  the 
South  in  its  colonial  state,  sadly  contrasting 
with  another  set  of  figures  exhibited  by  the 
convention  to  show  its  relative  condition  with- 
in a  few  years  after  the  Union.  Thus,  in  the 
year  1821,  the  imports  into  New  York  had 
risen  to  923,000,000— being  about  seventy  times 
its  colonial  import  at  about  an  equal  period  be- 
fore the  adoption  of  the  constitution ;  and  those 
of  South  Carolina  stood  at  $3,000,000— which, 
for  all  practical  purposes,  may  be  considerBd  the 
same  that  they  were  in  176a 

Such  was  the  difference — ^the  revaved  condi- 
tioDS— of  the  two  sections,  worked  between 
them  in  the  brief  space  of  two  gmerations — 
within  the  actual  lifetime  of  some  who  had  seen 
their  colonial  conditions.  The  proceedings  of 
the  convention  did  not  stop  there,  but  brought 
down  the  comparison  (under  this  commercial 
aspect)  to  near  the  period  of  its  own  sitting— to 
the  actual  period  of  the  highest  manifestation 
of  Southern  discontent,  in  1832— when  it  pro- 
duced the  enactment  of  the  South  Carolina  nul- 
lifying ordinance.  At  that  time  all  the  dispro- 
portions between  the  foreign  commerce  <^  the 
two  sections  had  inordinately  increased.  The 
New  York  imports  (since  1821)  had  more  than 
doubled ;  the  Virginia  had  fellen  off  one-half; 
South  Carolma  two-thirds.  The  actual  figures 
stood :  New  York  fifty-seven  millions  <^  dol- 
lars, Virginia  half  a  ndlliott.  South  Candina  one 
million  and  a  quarter. 

This  was  a  disheartening  view,  and  rendered 
more  grievous  by  the  certainty  of  its  continua- 
tion, the  prospect  of  its  aggravation,  and  the 
oonviotion  that  the  South  (in  its  great  stifles) 


132 


THIRTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


fiusished  the  basis  for  thaee  imports ;  of  which 
it  received  so  small  a  share.  To  this  loss  of  its 
import  trade,  and  its  transfer  to  the  North,  the 
oonTention  attribated,  as  a  primaiy  cause,  the 
reversed  conditions  of  the  two  sections — ^the 
great  advance  of  one  in  wealth  and  improve- 
ments— the  slow  progress  and  even  comparative 
decline  of  the  other ;  and,  with  some  allowance 
for  the  operation  of  natural  or  inherent  causes, 
referred  the  effect  to  a  course  of  federal  Ic^gisla- 
tion  unwarranted  by  the  grants  of  the  consti- 
tution and  the  objects  of  tlra  Union,  which  sub- 
tracted capital  from  one  section  and  accumu- 
lated it  in  the  other : — ^protective  tari£^  mtemal 
improvements^  pensions^  national  debt)  two  na- 
tional banks,  the  funding  system  and  the  paper 
system;  the  multiplication  of  offices,  profuse 
and  extravagant,  expenditure,  the  conversion  of 
a  limited  into  an  almost  unlimited  government ; 
and  the  substitution  of  power  and  splendor  for 
what  was  intended  to  be  a  simple  and  economi- 
cal administration  of  that  part  of  their  affiurs 
which  required  a  general  head. 

These  were  the  points  of  complaint — abuses — 
which  had  led  to  the  collection  of  an  enormous 
revenue,  chiefly  levied  on  the  products  of  one 
section  of  the  Union  and  mainly  disbursed  in 
another.  So  far  as  northern  advantages  were 
the  result  of  Mr  legislation  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  objects  of  the  Union,  all  discontent 
or  complaint  was  disclumed.  All  knew  that 
the  superior  advantages  of  the  North  for  navi- 
gation woidd  give  it  the  advantage  in  foreign 
commerce ;  but  it  wis  not  expected  that  these 
&cilities  would  operate  a  monopoly  on  one  side 
and  an  extinction  on  the  other ;  nor  was  that 
consequence  allowed  to  be  the  effect  of  these 
advantages  alone,  but  was  charged  to  a  course 
of  legislation  not  warranted  by  the  objects  of 
the  Union,  or  the  terms  of  the  constitution, 
which  created  it  To  this  course  of  legislation 
was  attributed  the  aocomuhttion  of  capital  in 
the  North,  which  had  enabled  that  section  to 
monopolize  the  foreign  commerce  which  was 
Ibunded  upon  southern  exports ;  to  cover  one 
part  with  wealth  while  the  other  was  unpover^ 
ished ;  and  to  make  the  South  tributary  to  the 
North,  and  suppliant  to  it  for  a  small  part  of 
the  fruits  of  their  own  labor. 

Unhappily  there  was  some  foundation  for 
this  view  of  the  case ;  and  in  this  lies  the  root 
of  the  disconteiit  of  the  South  and  its  dlwatis- 


fiMstion  with  the  Union,  although  it  may  bnik 
out  upon  another  point  It  is  in  this  belief  of 
an  incompatibility  of  interest,  from  the  penert- 
ed  working  of  the  federal  government,  that  lies 
the  root  of  southern  discontent^  and  whkji 
constitutes  the  danger  to  the  Union,  and  which 
statesmen  should  confhmt  and  grapple  vrith; 
and  not  in  any  danger  to  slave  proptfty,  which 
has  continued  to  aggrandijEe  in  value  dming  the 
whole  period  of  the  cry  of  danger,  and  is  dow 
of  greater  price  than  ever  was  known  beibre; 
and  such  as  our  ancestors  would  have  deemed 
&bulous.  The  sagacious  Mr.  Madison  kcev 
this— knew  where  the  danger  to  the  Union  lay, 
when,  in  the  86th  year  of  his  age,  and  the  last 
of  his  life,  and  under  the  anguish  of  painfol  mis- 
givings, he  wrote  (what  is  more  fully  set  out  in 
the  previous  volume  of  this  work)  these  po^ 
teutons  words : 

"  7%€  visible  susceptibility  to  the  contagion 
of  mUlification  in  the  Southern  States,  the 
sympathy  arising  from  known  causes,  and 
the  inculcated  imjjressum  of  a  permanent  in- 
compatibility of  interest  Between  the  North 
and  the  South,  may  put  it  in  the  power  of 
popular  leaders,  aspiring  to  the  highest  sta- 
tions, to  unite  the  jSouth,  on  some  critical  oo- 
casion^  in  some  course  of  action  of  which  nui- 
lification  may  be  the  first  step,  secession  the 
second,  and  a  farewell  separation  the  lastJ^ 

So  viewed  the  evil,  and  in  his  last  days,  the 
great,  surviving  founder  of  the  Union— seeing, 
as  he  did,  in  this  inculcated  impression  of  a  pe^ 
manent  incompatibility  of  interest  between  the 
two  sections,  the  fulcrum  or  point  of  support, 
on  which  disunion  could  rest  its  lever,  and  ptf* 
ricidal  hands  build  its  schemes.  What  btf 
been  published  in  the  South  and  adverted  to  in 
this  View  goes  to  show  that  an  incompatibih^ 
of  interest  between  the  two  sections,  thoqgb 
not  inherent,  has  been  produced  by  the  work- 
ing of  the  government— not  its  fair  and  le- 
gitimate, but  its  perverted  and  unequal  word- 
ing. 

This  is  the  evil  which  statesmen  should  see 
and  provide  against  Separation  is  no  remedy ; 
exclusion  of  Northern  vessels  fix)m  Southem 
ports  is  no  remedy ;  but  is  disunion  itself-^ 
and  upon  the  very  point  which  caused  0^ 
Union  to  be  formed.  Regulation  of  conuner'* 
between  the  States,  and  with  foreign  nation^ 
was  the  cause  of  the  formation  of  the  UQion* 
Break  that  regulation,  and  the  Union  is  brokeDi 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAX  BUREN.  PRESIDENT. 


133 


mod  the  broken  parts  conTerted  into  antagonist 
nations,  with  causes  enough  of  dissension  to 
engender  perpetual  wars,  and  inflame  incessant 
animosities..  The  remedy  lies  in  the  rig^t 
Tiroridng  of  the  constitution  ^  in  the  cessation 
of  unequal  legislation ;  in  the  redaction  of  the 
inordinate  expenses  of  the  garemment;  in  its 
return  to  the  simple,  limited,  and  economical 
machine  it  was  intended  to  be ;  and  in  the  revi* 
Tal  of  fraternal  feelings,  and  respect  for  each 
other's  rights  and  just  complaints;  which  would 
return  of  themselyes  when  the  real  cause  of  dis- 
content was  removed. 

The  conyentions  of  Augusta  and  Charleston 
proposed  their  remedy  for  the  Southern  depres- 
sion, and  the  comparative  decay  of  which  they 
complained.  It  was  a  fair  and  patriotic  reme- 
dy—that of  beooming  theb  own  exporters,  and 
opening  a  direct  trade  in  their  own  staples  be- 
tween Southern  and  foreign  ports.  It  was  re- 
commended—attempted— Jbiled.  Superior  ad- 
vantages for  navigation  in  the  North — greater 
aptitude  of  its  people  for  oommeroe— established 
course  of  business — accumulated  capital — con- 
tinued unequal  legislation  in  Oongress ;  and  in- 
creasing expenditures  of  the  government,  chief- 
ly disbursed  in  the  North,  and  defect  of  seamen 
in  the  South  (for  mariners  cannot  be  made  of 
slaves),  all  combined  to  retain  the  foreign  trade 
in  the  channel  which  had  absorbed  it;  and  to 
increase  it  there  with  the  increasing  wealth 
and  population  of  the  country,  and  the  still 
faster  increasing  extravagance  and  profusion 
of  the  government.  And  now,  at  this  period 
(1855)3  the  foreign  imports  at  New  York  are 
$^195,000,000 ;  at  Boston  $58,000,000 ;  in  Yii^ 
ginia  91,250,000;  in  South  Carol'ma  $1,750,000. 

This  is  what  the  dry  and  naked  figures  show. 
To  the  memory  and  imagination  it  is  worse; 
for  it  is  a  tradition  of  the  Colonies  that  the 
South  had  been  the  seat  of  wealth  and  happi- 
ness, of  power  and  opulence ;  that  a  rich  popu- 
lation covered  the  land,  dispensing  a  baronial 
hospitality,  and  diffusing  the  felicity  which 
themselves  enjoyed ;  that  all  was  life,  and  joy, 
and  affluence  then.  And  this  tradition  was  not 
without  similitude  to  the  reality,  as  this  writer 
can  testify ;  for  be  was  old  enough  to  have  seen 
(after  the  Revolution)  the  still  surviving  state 
of  Southern  colonial  manners,  when  no  travel- 
ler was  allowed  to  go  to  a  tavern,  but  was 
handed  over  from  fiunily  to  fiunily  through  en- 


tire States ;  when  holidays  were  days  of  festivi- 
ty and  expectation,  long  prepared  for,  and  cele- 
brated by  master  and  slave  with  music  and 
feasting,  and  great  concourse  of  friends  and  rela- 
tives ;  when  gold  was  kept  in  desks  or  chests 
(after  the  down&ll  of  continental  paper)  and 
weighed  in  scales,  and  lent  to  neighbors  for 
short  terms  without  note,  interest,  witness,  or 
security;  and  on  bond  and  land  security  for 
long  years  and  lawful  usance :  and  when  petty 
litigation  was  at  so  low  an  ebb  that  it  required 
a  fine  of  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  to  make  a  man 
serve  as  constable. 

The  reverse  of  all  this  was  now  seen  and  felt, 
— ^not  to  the  whole  extent  which  fiuacy  or  policy 
painted — ^but  to  extent  enough  to  constitute  a 
reverse,  and  to  make  a  contrast,  and  to  excite 
the  regrets  which  the  memory  of  past  joys  never 
fails  to  awaken.  A  real  change  had  come,  and 
this  change,  the  efiect  of  many  causes,  was  wholly 
attributed  to  one — ^the 'unequal  working  of  tin 
Federal  Government — ^whidi  g»ve  all  the  bene- 
fits  of  the  Union  to  the  North,  and  all  its  bur* 
dens  to  the  South.  And  that  was  the  point  on 
which  Southern  discontent  broke  out — on  which 
it  openly  rested  until  1835 ;  when  it  was  shifted 
to  the  danger  of  slave  property. 

Separation  is  no  remedy  for  these  evils,  but 
the  parent  of  &r  greater  than  either  just  discon- 
tent or  restless  ambition  would  fly  from.  To 
the  South  the  Union  is  a  political  blessing ;  to 
the  North  it  is  both  a  political  and  a  pecuniary 
blessing ;  to  both  it  should  be  a  social  blessing. 
Both  sections  should  cherish  it,  and  the  North 
most  The  story  of  the  boy  that  killed  the 
goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg  every  day,  that 
he  might  get  all  the  eggs  at  once,  was  a  Able; 
but  the  Northern  man  who  could  promote  sepa- 
ration by  any  course  of  wrong  to  the  South 
would  convert  that  &ble  into  history — his  own 
history — and  commit  a  folly,  in  a  mere  profit 
and  loss  point  of  view,  of  which  there  is  no  pre- 
cedent except  in  &ble. 


134 


THIRTY  TEAKS'  VIEW. 


OHAPTBB  XXXIII. 

PBOGBE88  OF  THB  8IAYEBY  AGITATION:  BOS. 
CALHOUN'S  APPBOYAL  OF  THE  MI8S0UBI  GOM- 
PBOMISB. 

This  portentotis  agitfttion,  destined  to  act  so 
seriously  on  the  harmony,  and  possibly  on  the 
stability  of  the  Union,  requires  to  be  noted  in 
its  different  stages,  that  responsibility  may  fol- 
low culpability,  and  the  judgment  of  history  fall 
where  it  is  due,  if  a  deplorable  calamity  is  made 
to  come  out  of  it  In  this  point  of  yiew  the 
movements  for  and  against  slavery  in  the  session 
of  1837-'38  deserve  to  be  noted,  as  of  disturbing 
effect  at  the  time ;  and  as  having  acquired  new 
importance  from  subsequent  events.  Early  in 
the  session  a  memorial  was  presented  in  the 
Senate  from  the  General  Assembly  of  Vermont, 
remonstrating  against  the  annexation  of  Texas 
to  the  United  States,  and  praying  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia- 
followed  by  many  petitions  from  citizens  and 
societies  in  the  Northern  States  to  the  same 
effect ;  and,  further,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  Territories— for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  between  the  States — and  for  the  exclusion 
of  future  slave  States  from  the  Union. 

There  wis  but  little  in  the  state  of  the  ooun- 
tiy  at  that  time  to  excite  an  anti-slavery  feel- 
ing, or  to  excuse  these  disturbing  applications 
to  Congress.  There  was  no  slave  territory  at 
that  time  but  that  of  Florida;  and  to  ask  to 
abolish  slavery  there,  where  it  had  existed  from 
the  discovery  of  the  continent,  or  to  make  its 
continuance  a  cause  for  the  rejection  of  the  State 
when  ready  for  admission  into  the  Union,  and 
thus  form  a  f^  State  in  the  rear  of  all  the  great 
slave  States,  was  equivalent  to  praying  for  a  dis- 
solution of  the  Union.  Texas,  if  annexed,  would 
be  south  of  36°  30^,  and  its  character,  in  relation 
to  slavery,  would  be  fixed  by  the  Missouri  com- 
promise line  of  1820.  The  slave  trade  between 
the  States  was  an  affair  of  the  States,  with  which 
Congress  had  nothing  to  do ;  and  the  oontinu- 
aooe  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  so 
long  as  it  existed  in  the  a^aoent  States  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland,  was  a  point  of  policy  in 
which  every  Congress,  and  every  administra- 
tion, had  concurred  from  the  formation  of  the 


I^uion ;  and  in  which  there  was  never  a  mm 
decided  concurrence  than  at  present 

The  petitioners  did  not  live  in  any  Territory, 
State,  or  district  subject  to  slavery.  Thej  felt 
none  of  the  evils  of  wluch  they  compliined— 
were  answerable  for  none  of  the  supposed  sin 
which  they  denounced — were  living  under  % 
general  government  which  acknowledged  prop- 
erty in  slaves — and  had  no  right  to  distarb  the 
rights  of  the  owner :  and  they  oommitted  a 
cruelty  upon  the  slave  by  the  additional  rigors 
which  their  pernicious  interference  brought 
upon  him. 

The  subject  of  the  petitions  was  disagreeable 
in  itself;  the  language  in  which  they  were 
couched  was  offensive ;  and  the  wantonness  of 
their  presentation  aggravated  a  proceeding  sufB- 
dently  provoking  in  the  dvilest  form  in  which 
it  could  be  conducted.  Many  petitions  were  in 
the  same  words,  bearing  internal  evidence  of 
concert  among  their  signers ;  many  were  signed 
by  women,  whose  proper  sphere  was  hi  from 
the  field  of  legislation ;  all  united  in  a  common 
purpose,  which  bespoke  community  of  origm, 
and  the  superintendence  of  a  general  directioB. 
Every  presentation  gave  rise  to  a  question  vA 
debate,  in  which  sentiments  and  feelings  were 
expressed  and  consequences  predicted,  which  it 
was  painful  to  hear.  While  almost  every  seui- 
tor  condemned  these  petitions,  and  the  spirit  in 
which  they  originated,  and  the  language  in  whid) 
they  were  couched,  and  considered  them  u 
tending  to  no  practical  object^  and  only  ctkor 
lated  to  make  dissension  and  irritation,  there 
were  others  who  took  them  in  a  graver  sense. 
and  considered  them  as  leading  to  the  inevitable 
separation  of  the  States.  In  this  sense  Mr. 
Calhoun  said : 

''He  had  foreseen  what  this  subject  would 
come  to.  He  knew  its  origin,  and  that  it  lay 
deeper  than  was  supposed.  It  ^w  out  of  & 
spirit  of  fimaticism  which  was  daily  increasiog; 
and,  if  not  met  in  limine,  would  by  and  by  disr 
solve  this  Union.  It  was  particularly  our  duty 
to  keep  the  matter  out  of  the  Senate — out  of  the 
halls  of  the  National  Legislature.  These  fiuiatics 
were  interfering  with  what  they  had  no  right 
Grant  the  reception  of  these  petition&  and  jou 
will  next  be  aslced  to  act  on  them.  He  was  for 
no  conciliatory  course,  no  temporizing ;  instead 
of  yielding  one  inch,  he  would  rise  in  opposition ; 
and  he  hoped  every  man  from  the  South  would 
stand  by  him  to  put  down  this  growing  evil 
There  was  but  one  question  that  would  ever 
destroy  this  Union,  and  that  was  involved  in 


ANNO  188a    MABTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PBESIBESTT. 


135 


this  principle.  Te0|  this  was  potent  enough 
for  it,  and  must  be  early  arrested  if  the  Union 
was  to  be  preserred.  A  man  must  see  little 
into  what  is  going  on  if  he  did  not  peroeiye  that 
this  spirit  was  growing,  and  that  the  rising 
generation  was  becomii^  more  strongly  imbned 
with  it.  It  was  not  to  be  stopped  by  reports 
on  paper,  but  by  action,  and  very  decided  ac- 
tion." 

The  question  which  oocained  the  Senate  was 
as  to  the  most  judicious  mode  of  treatmg  these 
memorials^  with  a  yiew  to  prevent  their  evil 
effects:  and  that  was  entirely  a  question  of 
policy,  on  which  senators  disagreed  who  con- 
curred in  the  main  object  Some  deemed  it 
most  advisable  to  receive  and  consider  the  pe- 
titions— ^to  refer  them  to  a  committee— and 
sulject  them  to  the  adverse  report  which 
they  would  be  sure  to  receive ;  as  had  been 
done  with  the  Quakers'  petitions  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  government  Others  deemed 
it  preferable  to  refuse  to  receive  them.  The 
objection  urged  to  this  latter  course  was,  that 
it  would  mix  up  a  new  question  with  the 
slavery  agitation  which  would  enlist  the  sym- 
pathies of  many  who  did  not  co-operate  with 
the  Abolitionists — the  question  of  the  right  of 
petition ;  and  that  this  new  question,  mixing 
with  the  other,  might  swell  the  number  of  pe- 
titioners, keep  up  the  applications  to  Congress, 
and  perpetuate  an  agitation  which  would  other- 
wise soon  die  out  Mr.  Glat,  and  many  others 
iwere  of  this  opinion;  Mr.  Calhoun  and  his 
friends  thought  otherwise ;  and  the  result  was, 
bo  far  as  it  concerned  the  petitions  of  individuals 
and  societies,  what  it  had  previously  been — a 
balf-way  measure  between  reception  and  rejec- 
tion— ^a  motion  to  lay  the  question  of  reception 
on  the  table.  This  motion,  precluding  all  dis- 
cussion, got  rid  of  the  petitions  quietly,  and 
kept  debate  out  of  the  Senate.  In  the  case 
of  the  memorial  from  the  State  of  Vermont, 
the  proceeding  was  slightly  different  in  form, 
but  the  same  in  substance.  As  the  act  of  a 
State,  the  memorial  was  received;  but  after 
reception  was  laid  on  the  table.  Thus  all  the 
memorials  and  petitions  were  disposed  of  by 
the  Senate  in  a  way  to  accomplish  the  two-fold 
object,  first,  of  avoiding  discussion ;  and,  next^ 
condemning  the  object  of  the  petitioners.  It 
was  accomplishing  all  that  the  South  asked; 
and  if  the  subject  had  rested  at  that  point,  there 
would  have  been  nothing  in  the  history  of  this 


session,  on  the  slavery  agitation,  to  distinguish 
it  fh>m  other  sessions  about  that  period :  but 
the  subject  was  revived ;  and  in  a  way  to  force 
discussion,  and  to  constitute  a  point  for  the  re- 
trospect of  history. 

Every  memorial  and  petition  had  been  die* 
posed  of  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  senator* 
from  the  slaveholding  States;  but  Mr.  Calhoun 
deemed  it  due  to  those  States  to  go  fhrther,  a)id 
to  obtain  fixnn  the  Senate  declarations  which 
should  cover  all  the  questions  of  federal  power 
over  the  institution  of  slavery :  although  he 
had  just  said  that  paper  reports  would  do 
no  good.  For  that  purpose,  he  submitted  a 
series  of  resolves — six  in  number — ^which  de- 
rive their  importance  from  their  eomparison, 
or  rather  contrast,  with  others  on  the  same 
subject  presented  by  him  in  the  Senate  ten 
years  later;  and  which  have  given  birth  to 
doctrines  and  proceedings  which  have  greatly 
disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  Union,  and  pal- 
pably endangered  its  stabilily.  The  six  reso- 
hitions  of  this  period  ('37-'38)  undertook  to 
define  the  whole  extent  of  the  power  dele- 
gated by  the  States  to  the  federal  government 
on  the  subject  of  slavery ;  to  specify  the  acts 
which  would  exceed  that  power ;  and  to  show 
the  consequences  of  doing  any  thing  not  author- 
ized to  be  done — always  ending  in  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  The  first  four  of  these  related 
to  the  States ;  about  whidi,  there  being  no  dis- 
pute, there  was  no  debate.  The  sixth,  without 
naming  Texas,  was  prospective,  and  looked  fiir- 
ward  to  a  case  which  might  include  her  annexar 
tion;  and  was  laid  upon  the  table  to  make  way 
for  an  express  resolution  fh>m  Mr.  Preston  on 
the  same  subject  The  fifth  related  to  the  ter- 
ritories, and  to  the  District  of  Columbia^  and 
was  the  only  one  which  excited  attention,  or  bos 
left  a  surviving  interest   It  was  in  these  words: 

^^  Resolved^  That  the  intermeddling  of  anr 
State,  or  States,  or  their  citizens,  to  aboUsh 
slavery  in  this  District,  or  any  of  the  territo- 
ries, on  the  ground  or  under  the  pretext  that  it 
is  immoral  or  sinful,  or  the  passage  of  any  act 
or  measure  of  Congress  with  that  view,  would 
be  a  direct  and  dangerous  attack  on  the  institu- 
tions of  all  the  slaveholding  States." 

The  dogma  of  ''no  power  in  Congress  to 
legislate  upon  the  existence  of  slavery  in  terri- 
tories" had  not  been  invented  at  that  time; 
and,  of  course,  was  not  asserted  ia  this  resolve, 


136 


THIRTY  TEABS'  VIEW. 


intended  by  its  aathor  to  define  the  extant  of 
the  federal  legisUtiye  power  on  the  subject. 
The  resolve  went  npon  the  existence  of  the 
power,  and  deprecated  its  abuse.  It  put  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  the  territories  into 
the  same  category,  both  for  the  exercise  of  the 
power  and  the  consequences  to  result  from  the 
intermeddling  of  States  or  citizens,  or  the  pas- 
sage of  any  act  of  Congress  to  abolish  slarexy 
in  either ;  and  this  was  admitting  the  power  in 
the  territory,  as  in  the  District ;  where  it  is  an 
express  grant  in  the  grant  of  all  legislatiye 
power.  The  intermeddling  and  the  legislation 
were  deprecated  in  both  solely  on  the  ground  of 
inexpediency.  Mr.  Clay  believed  this  inexpe- 
diency to  rest  upon  different  grounds  in  the  Dis- 
trict and  in  the  territory  of  Florida — ^tfae  only 
territory  in  which  slavery  then  existed,  and  to 
which  Mr.  Calhoun's  resolution  could  apply.  He 
was  as  much  opposed  as  any  one  to  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  either  of  these  places,  but  believed 
that  a  different  reason  should  be  given  for  eadi, 
founded  in  their  respective  circumstances ;  and, 
therefore,  submitted  an  amendment,  consisting 
of  two  resolutions— one  applicable  to  the  Dis- 
trict)  the  other  to  the  territory.  In  stating 
the  reasons  why  slavery  should  not  be  abol- 
ished in  Florida,  he  quoted  the  Missouri  com- 
promise lino  of  1820.  This  was  objected  to  by 
other  senators,  on  the  ground  that  that  line  did 
not  apply  to  Florida^  and  that  her  case  was  com- 
plete without  it  Of  that  opinion  was  the  Sen- 
ate, and  the  clause  was  struck  out.  This  gave 
Mr.  Calhoun  occasion  to  speak  of  that  com- 
promise, and  of  his  own  course  in  relation  to  it; 
in  the  course  of  which  he  declared  himself  to 
have  been  &vorable  to  that  memorable  measure 
at  the  time  it  was  adopted,  but  opposed  to  it 
now,  from  having  experienced  its  ill  effects  in 
encouraging  the  spirit  of  abolitionism : 

"  He  vras  glad  that  the  portion  of  the  amend- 
ment which  referred  to  the  Missouri  compromise 
had  been  struck  out  He  was  not  a  member  of 
Congress  when  that  compromise  was  made,  but 
it  is  due  to  candor  to  state  that  his  impressions 
were  in  its  &vor  •,  but  it  is  equally  due  to  it  to 

%that,  with  his  present  experience  and  knowl- 
»  of  the  spirit  which  then,  for  the  fint  time, 
began  to  disdose  itself,  he  had  entirely  changed 
his  opinion.  He  now  believed  that  it  was  a 
dan^rous  measure,  and  that  it  has  done  much 
to  rouse  into  action  the  present  spirit  Had  it 
then  been  met  with  uncompromising  opposition, 
such  as  a  then  distinguished  and  sagacious 


member  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Randolph],  now 
no  more,  opposed  to  it,  abolition  might  haye 
been  crushed  for  ever  in  its  birth.  He  then 
thought  of  Mr.  Randolph  as,  he  doubts  not, 
many  think  of  him  now  who  have  not  My 
looked  into  this  subject,  that  he  was  too  im- 
vielding — too  uncompromising^ — too  impractica- 
ble ;  but  he  had  been  taoght  his  error,  and  took 
pleasure  in  acknowledging  it'' 

This  declaration  is  explicit  It  is  made  in  a 
spirit  of  candor,  and  as  due  to  justice.  It  is  » 
declaration  spontaneously  made,  not  an  admisp 
sion  obtained  on  interrogatories.  It  sbowB 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  was  in  favor  of  the  compro- 
mise at  the  time  it  vras  adopted,  and  had  since 
changed  his  opinions — "entirely  changed  "  them, 
to  use  his  own  words — ^not  on  constitutional, 
but  expedient  grounds.  He  had  changed  apoD 
experience,  and  upon  seeing  the  dangerous  effects 
of  the  measure.  He  had  been  taught  his  error, 
and  took  pleasure  in  acknowledging  it  He 
blamed  Mr.  Randolph  then  for  having  been  too 
uncompromising;  but  now  thought  him  saga- 
cious; and  believed  that  if  the  measure  had 
met  with  uncompromising  opposition  at  the 
time,  it  would  have  crushed  for  ever  the  spirit 
of  abolitionism.  All  these  are  reasons  of  exp^ 
diency,  derived  from  after-experience,  and  ex- 
cludes the  idea  of  any  constitutional  objectJoO' 
The  establishment  of  the  Missouri  compromi* 
line  was  the  highest  possible  exercise  of  legis- 
lative authority  over  the  subject  of  slavery  in  a 
territory.  It  abolished  it  where  it  legally  ex- 
isted. It  for  ever  forbid  it  where  it  had  legally 
existed  for  one  hundred  years.  Mr.  Bandolph 
was  the  great  opponent  of  the  compromise.  H« 
gave  its  friends  all  their  trouble.  It  was  thco 
he  applied  the  phrase,  so  annoying  and  destroo- 
tive  to  its  northern  supporters — "  dough  ftce, 
— a  phrase  which  did  them  more  harm  than 
the  best-reasoned  speech.  All  the  friends  rf 
the  compromise  blamed  his  impracticable  op- 
position ;  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  joining  in  that 
blame,  placed  himself  in  the  ranks  of  the  co^ 
dial  friends  of  the  measure.  This  abolition 
and  prohibition  extended  over  an  area  IwgP 
enough  to  make  a  dozen  States ;  and  of  ^i 
this  Mr.  Calhoun  had  been  in  favor ;  snd  now 
had  nothing  but  reasons  of  expediency,  »^ 
they  ea:  post  factOy  against  it  His  expressf^ 
belief  now  was,  that  the  measure  was  dangeroi^ 
— he  does  not  say  unconstitutional,  but  danger 
ous — and  this  corresponds  with  the  terms  of  o^ 


ANNO  1S8&    MAmiN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


137 


n0olut]0n  then  sabmitted;  which  makes  the 
intermeddling  to  abolish  Blaverj  in  the  District 
or  territories,  or  any  act  or  measure  of  Congress 
to  that  efiect,  a  '^  dangerous"  attad^  on  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  slayeholding  States.  Certainly 
the  idea  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  such  legis- 
lation had  not  then  entered  his  head.  The  sub- 
stitute resolTC  of  Mr.  Clay  differed  from  that 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  changing  the  word  ^  inter* 
meddling"  to  that  of  ^  inteiferenoe ;"  and  con- 
fining that  word  to  the  conduct  of  citizens,  and 
making  the  abolition  or  attempted  abolition  of 

I  slavery  in  the  District  an  injury  to  its  own  in- 
habitants as*  well  as  to  the  States ;  and  placing 
its  protection  under  the  fiuth  implied  in  accept- 

,  ing  its  cession  from  Maryland  and  Virginia.  It 
was  in  these  words : 

I  ^  That  the  interference  by  the  citizens  of  any 

F       of  the  States,  with  the  yiew  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  m  this  District,  is  endangering  the  rights 
and  security  of  the  people  of  t&  District;  and 
*       that  any  act  or  measure  of  Congress,  designed 
>       to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District,  would  be  a 
I       Tiolation  of  the  faith  implied  in  the  cessions  by 
,       the  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland — a  just 
cause  of  alarm  to  the  people  of  the  slaveholding 
'       States — and  have  a  direct  and  inevitable  ten- 
dency to  disturb  and  endanger  the  Union." 

The  vote  on  the  final  adoption  of  the  resolu- 
tion was : 

"Teas — Messrs.  Allen,  Bayard,  Benton, 
Black,  Brown,  Buchanan.  Calhoun,  Clay,  of 
Alabama,  Cly,  of  Kentucky,  Thomas  Clayton, 
Crittenden,  Cuthbert,  Fulton,  Grundy,  Hub- 
bard, King,  Lumpkin,  Lyon,  Nicholas,  Niles, 
Norvell,  Franklin  Pierce,  Preston,  Rives,  Roane, 
Robinson,  Sevier,  Smith,  of  ConnecticutStrange, 
Tallmad^  Tipton,  Walker,  White,  Williams, 
Wright,  Young. 

"Nats —  Messrs.  Davis,  Knight,  McKean, 
Morris,  Prentiss,  Smith,  of  Indiana,  Swift,  Web- 
Btcr.^' 

The  second  resolution  of  Mr.  Clay  applied  to 
slavery  in  a  territory  where  it  existed,  and  de- 
precated any  attempt  to  abolish  it  in  such  ter^ 
ritory,  as  alarming  to  the  slave  States,  and  as 
violation  of  &ith  towards  its  inhabitants,  unless 
they  asked  it ;  and  in  derogation  of  its  right  to 
decide  the  question  of  slavery  for  itself  when 
erected  into  a  State.  This  resolution  was  in- 
tended to  cover  the  case  of  Florida,  and  ran 
thus: 

"  Resolved^  That  any  attempt  of  Congress  to 
abolish  slavery  in  any  territory  of  tbe  United 
States  in  whidi  it  exists  would  create  serious 


alarm  and  jnst  i^pprehension  in  the  States  sus- 
taining that  domestic  institution,  and  would  be 
a  violation  of  good  &ith  towards  the  inhabitants 
of  any  such  territory  who  have  been  permitted 
to  settle  with,  and  hold,  slaves  therein ;  because 
the  people  dT  any  such  territory  have  not  asked 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  therein ;  and  because, 
when  any  such  territory  shall  be  admitted  into 
the  Union  as  a  State,  the  people  thereof  shall 
be  entitled  to  decide  that  question  exclusively 
for  themselves." 

And  the  vote  upon  it  was — 

^^Tbas  —  Messrs.  Allen,  Bayard,  Benton, 
Black,  Brown,  Buchanan,  Calhoun,  Clay,  of 
Alabama,  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  Crittenden,  Cuth- 
bert, Fulton,  (irundy,  Hubbard.  King,  Lump- 
kin, Lyon,  Merrick,  Nichohis,  Niles,  Norvell, 
Franklin  Pierce,  Preston,  Rives,  Roane,  Robin* 
son,  Sevier,  Smith,  of  Connecticut  Strange. 
Tipton,  WaJker,  T\  hite,  Williams,  Wright,  and 
Young. 

"Nays  —  Messrs.  Thomas  Clayton,  Davi& 
Knight,  McKean,  Prentiss,  Robbxns,  Smith,  of 
Indiana,  Swift,  and  Webster." 

The  few  senators  who  voted  against  both 
resolutions  chiefly  did  so  for  reasons  wholly  uxf- 
connected  with  their  merits;  some  because 
opposed  to  any  declarations  on  the  subject,  as 
abstract  and  inoperative;  others  because  they 
dissented  from  the  reasons  expressed,  and  pre- 
ferred others :  and  the  senators  from  Delaware 
(a  slave  State)  because  they  had  a  nullification 
odor  about  them,  as  first  introduced.  Mr. 
Calhoun  voted  for  both,  not  in  preference  to  his 
own,  but  as  agreeing  to  them  after  they  had 
been  preferred  by  the  Senate;  and  so  gave  his 
recorded  assent  to  the  doctrines  they  contain- 
ed. Both  admit  the  constitutional  power  of 
Congress  over  the  existence  of  slavery  both  in 
the  district  and  the  territories,  but  deprecate  its 
abolition  where  it  existed  for  reasons  of  high  ex- 
pediency :  and  in  this  view  it  is  believed  nearly 
the  entire  Senate  concurred ;  and  quite  the  en- 
tire Senate  on  the  constitutional  point — ^there 
being  no  reference  to  that  point  in  any  part  of 
the  debates.  Mr.  Webster  probably  spoke  the 
sentiments  of  most  of  those  voting  with  him,  as 
well  as  his  own,  when  he  said : 

"  K  the  resolutions  set  forth  that  all  domestic 
institutions,  except  so  &r  as  the  constitution 
might  interfere,  and  any  intermeddling  there- 
with by  a  State  or  individual,  was  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  the  confederacy,  and  was  thereby 
illegal  and  unjust,  he  would  give  them  his  hearty 
and  cheerful  support;  and  would  do  so  still  u 


138 


TBOBTY  YEABff  YiJSW. 


the  senator  from  South  Carolina  would  consent 
to  such  an  amen^nent;  but  in  their  pree^it 
form  he  must  giye  his  TOte  against  them." 

The  general  feeling  of  the  Senate  was  that  of 
entire  repugnance  to  the  whole  moyement — that 
of  the  petitions  and  memorials  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Mr.  Calhoun's  resolutions  on  the  other. 
The  former  were  quietly  got  rid  of,  and  in  a  way 
to  rebuke,  as  well  as  to  condenmtiieir  presenta- 
tion ;  that  is  to  say,  by  motions  (sustained  by  the 
body)  to  lay  them  on  the  table.  The  resolutions 
could  not  so  easily  be  disposed  o^  especially 
as  their  mover  earnestly  demanded  discussion, 
spoke  at  large,  and  often,  himself;  "  and  desired 
to  make  the  question,  on  their  rejection  or  adop- 
tion, a  test  question."  They  were  abstract,  lead- 
ing to  no  result,  made  discussion  where  silence 
was  desirable,  frustrated  the  design  of  the  Sen- 
ate in  refusing  to  discuss  the  abolition  petitions, 
gave  them  an  importance  to  which  they  were 
not  entitled,  promoted  agitation,  embarrassed 
friendly  senators  from  the  North,  placed  some 
in  &lse  positions ;  and  brought  animadversions 
from  many.    Thus,  Mr.  Buchanan : 

^  I  cannot  believe  that  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina  has  taken  the  best  course  to  attain 
these  results  (quieting  a^t&tion).  This  is  the 
great  centre  of  agitation ;  from  this  capital  it 
spreads  over  the  whole  Union.  I  therefore  de- 
precate a  protracted  discussion  of  the  question 
here.  It  can  do  uo  good,  but  may  do  much 
harm,  both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  The 
senators  from  Delaware,  although  representing 
a  slaveholding  State,  have  voted  against  these 
resolutions  l^cause,  in  their  opinion^  they  can 
detect  in  them  the  poison  of  nullification.  Now, 
I  can  see  no  such  thing  in  them^  and  am  ready 
to  avow  in  the  main  they  contam  nothing  but 
correct  political  principles,  to  which  I  am  de- 
voted. JBut  what  then  1  These  senators  are 
placed  in  a  fiUse  position,  and  are  compelled  to 
vote  against  resolutions  the  object  of  which  they 
heartily  approve.  Again,  my  friend,  the  senator 
from  New  Jersey  (Mr.  Wall),  votes  against 
them  because  they  are  political  abstractions  of 
which  he  thinks  the  Senate  ought  not  to  take 
cognizance,  although  he  is  as  much  opposed  to 
abolition,  and  as  willing  to  maintain  the  consti- 
tutional rights  of  the  South  as  any  senator  upon 
this  floor.  Other  senators  believe  the  right  of 
petition  has  been  endangered;  and  until  that 
nas  becm  established  they  will  not  vote  for  any 
resolutions  on  the  sul^ect  Thus  we  stand: 
and  those  of  us  in  the  North  who  must  sustain 
the  brunt  of  the  battle  are  forced  into  false  posi- 
tions. Abolition  thus  acquires  force  by  bring- 
ing to  its  aid  the  right  of  petition,  and  the 
hMtility  which  exists  at  the  North  against  the 


doctrines  of  nullification.  It  is  in  vain  to  say- 
that  these  principles  are  not  really  involved  in 
the  question.  This  may  be,  and  in  my  opinion 
is,  true ;  but  why,  by  our  conduct  here,  should 
we  afford  the  abolitionists  such  plausible  pre- 
texts? The  fact  is,  and  it  cannot  be  disguised, 
that  those  of  us  in  the  Northern  States  who  have 
determined  to  sustain  the  rights  of  the  slave 
States  at  every  hazard  are  placed  in  a  most  em- 
barrassing  situation.  We  are  almost  literally 
between  two  fires.  Whilst  in  front  we  are 
assailed  by  the  aboliticmists,  our  own  friends  in 
the  South  are  constantly  driving  us  into  posi- 
tions where  their  enemies  and  our  enemies  may 
gain  important  advantages." 

And  thus  Mr.  Crittaiden : 

^  If  the  object  of  these  resolutions  was  to  pro- 
duce peace,  and  allay  excitement  it  appeared  to 
him  that  tney  were  not  very  likely  to  aocom- 
plish  such  a  purpose.  More  vague  and  general 
abstractions  could  hardly  have  been  brought 
forward,  and  they  were  more  calculated  to  pro- 
duce agitation  and  stir  up  discontent  and  bad 
blood  than  to  do  any  good  whatever.  Such  be 
knew  was  the  geneitd  opinion  of  Southern  men. 
few  of  whom,  however  they  assented  to  the  ab^ 
stractions,  approved  of  this  method  of  agitating 
the  subject.  The  mover  of  these  resolutions 
relies  nudnly  on  two  points  to  carry  the  Senate 
with  him ;  first,  he  reiterates  the  cry  of  danger 
to  the  Union ;  and,  next,  that  if  he  is  not  fol- 
lowed in  this  movement  he  urges  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  destruction  of  the  Union-  It 
is  possible  the  gentleman  may  be  mistaken.  It 
possibly  might  not  be  exactly  true  that,  to  sav« 
the  Union,  it  was  necessary  to  follow  him.  On 
the  contrary,  some  were  of  opinion,  and  he  fat 
one  was  much  inclined  to  be  of  the  same  view, 
that  to  follow  the  distinguished  mover  dt  th^se 
resolutions — to  pursue  the  course  of  irritation, 
agitation,  and  intimidation  which  he  chalked 
out — ^would  be  the  very  best  and  surest  method 
that  could  be  chalked  out  to  destroy  this  great 
and  happy  Union." 

And  thus  Mr.  Clay : 

^  The  series  of  resolutions  under  oon8iderati(m 
has  been  introduced  by  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina,  after  he  and  other  senators  from  iIm 
South  had  deprecated  discussion  on  the  delicate 
subject  to  which  they  relate.  They  have  occa- 
sioned much  discussion,  in  which  hitherto  I 
have  not  participated.  I  hope  that  the  tenden- 
cy of  the  resolutions  may  be  to  allay  the  ex- 
citement which  unhappily  prevails  in  respect  to 
the  abolition  of  slavery;  but  I  confess  that, 
taken  altogether,  and  in  connection  with  other 
circumstances^  and  especially  considering  the 
manner  in  which  their  author  has  pressed  them 
on  the  Senate,  I  fear  that  they  will  have  the 
opposite  effect ;  and  particularly  at  the  North; 
that  they  may  increase  and  exasperate  instead 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


189 


ofdimmiBhing  and  aaraa^ng  the  eziating  agita- 
tion." 

And  thuB  Mr.  Preston,  of  Soath  Oarolina : 

''His  objectionB  to  the  introduction  of  the 
resoltttionB  were  that  they  allowed  ground  for 
discussion ;  and  that  the  subject  ought  never  to 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  halls  of  the  legislative 
assembly,  was  always  to  be  taken  for  granted 
"by  the  South ;  and  what  would  abstract  propo- 
sitions of  this  nature  effect  ?  " 

And  thus  Mr.  Strange,  of  North  Oarolina : 

^  What  did  they  set  forth  but  abstract  prin- 
ciples, to  which  the  South  had  again  and  agun 
certified  ?  What  bulwark  of  defence  was  need- 
ed stronger  than  the  constitution  itself  ?  Every 
movement  on  the  part  of  the  South  only  g]#e 
additional  strength  to  her  opponents.  The 
wisest,  nay,  the  only  safe,  course  was  to  remain 
quiet,  though  prepared  at  the  same  time  to  re- 
sist all  aggression.  Questions  like  this  only 
tended  to  excite  angry  feelings.  The  senator 
fW>m  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Calhoun)  charged 
him  with  ^ preaching^  to  one  side.  Perhaps 
he  had  sermonized  too  Ions  for  the  patience  of 
the  Senate  i  but  then  he  had  preached  to  all 
sides.  It  was  the  agitation  of  the  question  in 
any  form,  or  shape,  visi  rendered  it  dangerous. 
Agitating  this  question  in  any  shape  was  ruinous 
to  the  South." 

And  thus  Mr.  Richard  H.  Bayard,  of  Dela- 
"ware: 

^  Though  he  denounced  the  spirit  of  abolition 
SIS  dangerous  and  wicked  in  the  extreme,  vet  he 
did  not  feel  himself  authorised  to  vote  for  the 
resolutions.  If  the  doctrines  contained  in  them 
-were  correct,  then  nullification  was  correct ; 
and  if  passed  might  hereafter  be  appealed  to  as 
a  precedent  in  favor  of  that  doctrine ;  though  he 
acquitted  the  senator  [Mr.  Calhoun]  of  having 
the  most  remote  intention  of  smugghng  in  any 
thing  in  relation  to  that  doctrine  under  cover 
of  these  resolutions." 

Mr.  Calhoun,  annoyed  by  so  much  condem- 
nation of  his  course,  and  especially  from  those 
as  determined  as  himself  to  protect  the  slave 
institution  where  it  legally  existed,  spoke  often 
and  warmly ;  and  justified  his  course  from  the 
greatness  of  the  danger,  and  the  fiital  conse- 
quences to  the  Union  if  it  was  not  arrested. 

'^1  fear  (said  Mr.  C.)  that  the  Senate  has  not 
•elevated  its  vidw  sufiBoently  to  comprehend  the 
extent  and  magnitude  of  the  existing  danger. 
It  was  perhaps  his  misfortune  to  look  too  much 
to  the  future^  and  to  move  against  dangers  at 
too  great  a  distance,  which  had  involved  nim  in 
many  difficulties  and  exposed  him  often  to  the 
imputation  of  unworthy  motives.    Thus  ho  had 


lon^  Ibreseen  the  immense  surplus  revenue 
which  a  false  system  of  legislation  must  pour 
into  the  Treasury,  and  the  &tal  consequences 
to  the  morals  and  institutions  of  the  country 
which  must  follow  When  nothing  else  could 
arrest  it  he  threw  himself  with  his  State,  into 
the  breach,  to  amst  dangers  which  could  not 
otherwise  oe  arrested ;  whether  wisely  or  not 
he  left  posterity  to  judge.  He  now  saw  with 
equal  clearness — as  dear  as  the  noondav  sun 
— ^the  fatal  consequences  which  must  follow 
if  the  present  disease  be  not  timely  arrested. 
He  would  repeat  again  what  he  had  so  often 
said  on  this  floor.  This  was  the  only  ques- 
tion of  sufficient  magnitude  and  potency  to 
divide  this  Union ;  and  divide  it  it  would,  or 
drench  the  oountiy  in  blood,  if  not  arrested. 
He  knew  how  much  the  sentiment  he  had  ut^ 
tered  would  be  misconstrued  and  misrepre- 
sented. There  were  those  who  saw  no  dan- 
ger to  the  Union  in  the  violation  of  all  its 
ftmdamental  principles,  but  who  were  full  of 
apprehension  when  danger  was  foretold  or  re- 
sisted, and  who  held  not  the  authors  of  the 
danger,  but  those  who  forewarned  or  opposed 
it,  responsible  for  consequences." 

"But  the  cry  of  disunion  by  the  weak  or 
designing  had  no  terror  for  him.  If  his  attach- 
ment to  the  Union  was  less,  he  might  tamper 
with  the  deep  disease  whicn  now  afflicts  the 
body  politic,  and  keep  silent  till  the  patient  was 
ready  to  sink  under  its  mortal  blows.  It  is  a 
cheap,  and  he  must  say  but  too  certun  a  mode 
of  aoquirmg  the  character  of  devoted  attachment 
to  the  Union.  But,  seeing  the  danger  as  he 
did,  he  would  be  a  traitor  to  the  Union  and 
those  he  represented  to  keep  silence.  The  as- 
saults daQy  made  on  the  institutions  of  nearly 
one  half  of  the  States  of  this  Union  by  the 
other — institutions  interwoven  from  the  begin- 
ning with  their  political  and  social  existence, 
and  which  cannot  be  other  than  that  without 
thoir  inevitable  destruction — will  and  must,  if 
continued,  make  two  people  of  one  by  destroy- 
ing every  sympathy  between  the  two  great  sec- 
tions— obliterating  from  their  hearts  the  recol- 
lection of  their  common  danger  and  glory — and 
implanting  in  their  place  a  mutual  hatred,  more 
deadly  than  ever  existed  between  two  neighbor- 
ing people  since  the  commencement  of  the  hu- 
man race.  He  feared  not  the  circulation  of  the 
thousands  of  incendiary  and  slanderous  publi- 
cations which  were  daily  issued  from  an  organ- 
ized and  powerful  press  among  those  intended 
to  be  vilined.  They  cannot  penetrate  our  sec- 
tion ;  that  was  not  the  danger ;  it  lay  in  a  dif- 
ferent direction.  Their  circulation  in  the  non- 
slaveholding  States  was  what  was  to  be  dread- 
ed. It  was  infusing  a  deadly  poison  into  the 
minds  of  the  rising  generation,  implanting  in 
them  feelings  of  hatred,  the  most  deadly  ha- 
tred, instead  of  affection  and  love,  for  one  half 
of  this  Union,  to  be  returned,  on  their  part, 
with  equal  detestation.    The  utal,  the  immu- 


140 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


table  oonsequences,  if  not  arrested,  and  that 
without  delay,  were  such  as  he  had  presented. 
The  first  and  desirable  object  is  to  arrest  it 
in  the  non-slaveholding  States;  to  meet  the 
disease  where  it  originated  and  where  it  exists ; 
and  the  first  step  to  this  is  to  find  some  com- 
mon constitutional  ground  on  which  a  rally, 
with  that  object,  can  be  made«  These  resolu- 
tions present  the  ground,  and  the  only  one,  on 
which  it  can  be  imtde.  The  only  remedy  is  in 
the  State  rights  doctrines ;  and  if  those  who 
profess  them  in  slayeholding  States  do  not  rally 
on  them  as  their  political  creed,  and  organiise  as 
a  party  against  the  fanatics  in  order  to  put  them 
down,  the  South  and  West  will  be  compelled  to 
take  the  remedy  into  their  own  hands.  They 
will  then  stand  justified  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
man;  and  what  in  that  event  will  follow  no 
mortal  can  anticipate.  Mr.  President  (said  Mr. 
C),  we  are  reposing  on  a  yolcano.  The  Senate 
seems  entirely  ignorant  of  the  state  of  feeling 
in  the  South.  The  mail  has  just  brought  us  in- 
telligence of  a  most  important  step  taken  by 
one  of  the  Southern  States  in  connection  with 
this  subject,  which  will  giro  some  conception 
of  the  tone  of  feeling  which  begins  to  prevail  in 
that  quarter." 

It  was  such  speaking  as  this  that  induced 
some  votes  against  the  resolutions.  All  the 
senators  were  dissatisfied  at  the  constant  exhi- 
bition of  the  same  semedy  (disunion),  for  all 
the  diseases  of  the  body  politic ;  but  the  greater 
part  deemed  it  right,  if  they  voted  at  all,  to  vote 
their  real  sentiments.  Many  were  disposed  to 
lay  the  resolutions  on  the  table,  as  the  disturb- 
ing petitions  had  been ;  but  it  was  concluded 
that  policy  made  it  preferable  to  vote  upon 
thenL 

Mr.  Benton  did  not  speak  in  this  debate. 
He  believed,  as  others  did,  that  discussion  was 
injurious ;  that  it  was  the  way  to  keep  up  and 
extend  agitation,  and  the  thing  above  all  others 
which  the  abolitionists  desired.  Discussion 
upon  the  floor  of  the  American  Senate  was  to 
them  the  concession  of  an  immense  advantage — 
the  concession  of  an  elevated  and  commanding 
theatre  for  the  display  aild  dissemination  of 
their  doctrines.  It  gave  them  the  point  to 
stand  upon  from  which  they  could  reach  every 
part  of  the  Union ;  and  it  gave  them  the  Reg- 
xiter  of  the  Debates^  instead  of  their  local  pa- 
pers, for  their  organ  of  communication.  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  a  fortunate  customer  for  them. 

The  Senate,  in  laying  all  their  petitions  and 
the  memorial  of  Vermont  on  the  table  with- 
out debate,  signified  its  desire  to  yield  them  no 


such  advantage.  The  introduction  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's resolution  frustrated  that  desire,  and  in- 
duced many  to  do  what  they  condemned.  Mr. 
Benton  took  his  own  sense  of  the  proper  coarse, 
in  abstaining  from  debate,  and  confining  the  ex- 
pression of  his  opinions  to  the  delivery  of  rotes: 
and  in  that  he  conformed  to  the  sense  of  the 
Senate,  and  the  action  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. Many  hundreds  of  these  petitions  were 
presented  in  the  House,  and  quietly  laid  upon 
the  table  (after  a  stormy  scene,  and  the  adoption 
of  a  new  rule),  under  motions  to  that  effeot ;  tnd 
this  would  have  been  the  case  in  the  Senste,  hid 
it  not  been  for  the  resolutions,  the  introdactiaa 
of  which  was  so  generally  deprecated. 

The  part  of  this  debate  which  excited  no  at- 
tention at  the  time,  but  has  since  acquired  i 
momentous  importance,  is  that  part  in  wbkli 
Mr.  Calhoun  declared  his  faTorable  dispoeition 
to  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  his  condemia- 
tion  of  Mr.  Randolph  (its  chief  opponent),  ^ 
opposing  it ;  and  his  change  of  opinion  since. 
not  for  unconstitutionality,  but  because  he  be- 
lieved it  to  have  become  dangerous  in  encoQ^ 
aging  the  spirit  of  abolitionism.  This  comprO' 
mise  was  the  highest,  the  most  solemn,  the  mo^ 
momentous,  the  most  emphatic  assertion  d 
Congressional  power  over  slavery  in  a  territory 
which  had  ever  been  made,  or  could  be  con- 
ceived. It  not  only  abolished  slavery  where  it 
legally  existed ;  but  for  ever  prohibited  it  whew 
it  had  long  existed,  and  that  over  an  extent!^ 
territory  larger  than  the  area  of  all  the  AtI»D- 
tic  slave  States  put  together:  and  thus  yieUiu? 
to  the  free  States  the  absolute  predominance  io 
the  Union. 

Mr.  Calhoun  was  for  that  resolution  in  1^^ 
— ^blamed  those  who  opposed  it ;  and  could  s* 
no  objection  to  it  in  1838  but  the  encoDrtge- 
ment  it  gave  to  the  spirit  of  abolitionism.  ^^ 
years  afterwards  (session  of  184^'47)  he  sob- 
mitted  other  resolutions  (five  in  number)  ^ 
the  same  power  of  Congress  over  slavery  W" 
lation  in  the  territories ;  in  which  he  denied  the 
power,  and  asserted  that  any  such  legisl«ti<^ 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  slaveholdmg  emip*''^ 
from  the  States,  in  preventing  them  fro®  ^ 
moving,  with  their  slave  property,  to  such  ter 
ritory,  "would  be  a  violation  of  the  consti^ 
tion  and  the  rights  of  the  States  from  vhi^ 
such  citizens  emigrated,  and  a  derogstioQ 
that  perfect  equality  which  belongs  to  \^^ 


ANNO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


141 


members  of  this  Union ;  and  wotdd  tend  du 
redly  to  subvert  the  Union  iteelfP 

These  resohiikms,  so  new  and  staitling  in 
their  doctrines — so  contrary  to  their  anteces^ 
sors,  and  to  the  whole  coarse  of  the  goTemment 
—were  denounced  by  the  writer  of  this  View 
the  instant  they  were  read  in  the  Senate ;  and, 
beii^  much  discountenanced  by  other  senatcvs, 
they  were  never  pressed  to  a  yote  in  that  body ; 
but  were  afterwards  adopted  by  some  of  the 
slaye  State  legishttores.  One  year  afterwards, 
in  a  debate  on  the  Or^on  temtorial  bill,  and 
on  the  section  which  proposed  to  declare  the 
anli-slayery  dause  of  the  ordinance  of  1787  to 
be  in  force  in  that  territory.  Mr.  Oalhonn  de- 
nied the  power  of  Congress  to  make  any  snch 
declaration,  or  in  any  way  to  le^late  upon 
slayery  in  a  territory.  He  deliyered  a  most 
^aborate  and  thoronghly  considered  speech  on 
the  subject,  in  the  course  of  which  he  laid  down 
three  propositions : 

1.  That  Congress  had  no  power  to  legislate 
npon  slayery  in  a  territory,  so  as  to  preyent 
the  citizens  of  slayeholding  States  from  remov- 
ing into  it  with  their  slave  property.  2.  That 
Congress  had  no  power  to  delegate  such  au- 
tliority  to  a  territory.  3.  That  the  territory 
hiid  no  such  power  in  itself  (thus  leaving  the 
subject  of  slavery  in  a  territory  without  any 
legislative  power  over  it  at  all).  He  deduced 
tbese  dogmas  from  a  new  insight  into  the  con- 
stitution, which,  according  to  this  fresh  intro- 
spection, recognized  slavery  as  a  national  insti- 
tution, and  carried  that  part  of  itself  (by  its 
own  vigor)  into  all  the  territories ;  aiMl  pro- 
tected slavery  there:  ergo,  neither  Congress, 
xior  its  deputed  territorial  legislature,  nor  the 
people  of  the  territory  during  their  territorial 
condition,  could  any  way  touch  the  subject — 
either  to  affirm,  or  disaffirm  the  institution. 
He  endeavored  to  obtain  from  Congress  a 
crutch  to  aid  these  lame  doctrines  in  limping 
into  the  territories  by  getting  the  constitution 
voted  into  them,  as  part  of  their  organic  law ; 
and,  failing  in  that  attempt  (repeatedly  made), 
he  took  podtion  on  the  ground  that  the  consti- 
tution went  into  these  possessions  of  itself,  so 
far  as  slavery  was  concerned,  it  being  a  na- 
tional institution. 

These  three  propositions  being  in  flagrant  con- 
flict with  the  power  exerdsed  by  Congress  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Missouri  oomi^Qmise  line 


(which  had  become  a  tradition  as  a  Southern 
measure,  supported  by  Southern  members  of 
Congress,  and  sanctioned  by  the  cabinet  of  Mr. 
Monroe,  of  which  Mr.  Calhoun  was  a  member), 
the  het  of  that  compromise  and  his  concur* 
renoe  in  it  was  inunediately  used  against  him 
by  Senator  IMz,  of  New  York,  to  invalidate  his 
present  opinions. 

Unfortunately  he  had  forgotten  this  cabinet 
consultation,  and  his  own  concurrence  in  its 
decision — ^believing  ftilly  that  no  such  thing 
had  occurred,  and  adhering  firmly  to  the  new 
dogma  of  total  denial  of  all  constitutional  power 
in  Congress  to  legislate  upon  slavery  in  a  terri- 
tory. This  brought  up  recollections  to  sustain 
the  tradition  which  told  of  the  consultation — to 
show  that  it  took  place — that  its  voice  was 
unanimous  in  favor  of  the  compnMnisc ;  and, 
consequently,  that  Mr.  Calhoun  himself  was  in 
&vor  of  it    Old  writings  were  produced : 

Ftret,  a  fac  eimite  copy  of  an  original  paper 
in  Mr.  Monroe's  handwriting,  found  among  his 
manuscripts,  dated  March  4,  1820  (two  days 
befi>re  the  approval  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
act),  and  indorsed:  " Interrogatories— Missouri 
— ^to  the  Heads  of  Departments  and  the  Attor- 
ney-General ; "  and  containing  within  two  ques- 
tions: ^1.  Has  Congress  a  r%ht,  under  the 
powers  vested  in  it  by  the  constitution,  to 
make  a  regulation  prohibiting  slavery  in  a  ter- 
ritory 1  2.  Is  the  8th  section  of  the  act  which 
passed  both  Houses  of  Congress  on  the  3d  in- 
stant for  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the 
Union,  coniustent  with  the  constitution?" 
Secondly,  the  draft  of  an  original  letter  in 
Mr.  Monroe's  handwritii^  but  without  signa- 
ture^ date,  or  address,  but  believed  to  have  been 
addressed  to  General  Jac^on,  in  which  he 
says :  ^  The  question  wlufch  lately  agitated  Con* 
gress  and  the  public  has  been  settled,  as  you 
have  seen,  by  the  passage  of  an  act  for  the  ad- 
mission ci  Missouri  as  a  State,  unrestricted; 
and  Arkansas,  also,  when  it  reaches  maturity; 
and  the  establishment  of  the  parallel  of  36 
degrees  30  minutes  as  a  line  north  of  which 
slavery  is  prohibited,  and  permitted  south  of  it. 
I  took  the  opijiion,  ia  writing,  of  the  adminis- 
tration as  to  the  oonstitntionality  of  restraining 
territories,  which  was  explicit  in  ikvor  of  it; 
and,  as  it  was,  that  the  8th  section  of  the  act 
was  applicable  to  territories  only,  and  not  to 
States  when  thoy  should  be  admitted  into  Um 


142 


THIRTT  YEARS'  VIEW. 


Union."  Thirdly^  an  eztnct  from  the  diary  of 
Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  under  date  of  the  3d  of 
March,  1820,  stating  that  the  President  on  that 
day  assembled  his  cabinet  to  ask  their  opinions 
on  the  two  questions  mentioned — which  the 
whole  cabinet  immediately  answered  unani- 
mously, and  afSrmatiyely ;  that  on  the  5th  he 
sent  the  questions  in  writing  to  the  members 
of  his  cabinet,  to  receive  their  written  answers, 
to  be  filed  in  the  department  of  State ;  and  that 
on  the  6th  he  took  his  own  answer  to  the  Pres- 
ident, to  be  filed  with  the  rest — all  agreeing  in 
the  f^rmatiye,  and  only  difiering  some  in  as- 
signing, others  not  assigning  reasons  for  his 
opinion.  The  diary  states  that  the  President 
signed  his  approval  of  the  Missouri  act  on  the 
6th  (which  the  act  shows  he  did),  and  request- 
ed Mr.  Adams  to  have  all  the  opinions  filed  in 
the  department  of  State. 

Upon  this  evidence  it  would  have  rested 
without  question  that  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet 
had  been  consulted  on  the  constitutionality  of 
the  Missouri  compromise  line,  and  that  all  con- 
curred in  it,  had  it  not  been  for  the  denial  of 
Mr.  Calhoun  in  the  debate  on  the  Oregon  ter- 
ritorial bill.  His  denial  brought  out  this  evi- 
dence \  and,  notwithstanding  its  production  and 
conclusiveness,  he  adhered  tenaciously  to  his 
disbelief  of  the  whole  occurrence ;  and  especial- 
ly the  whole  of  his  own  imputed  share  in  it 
Two  circumstances,  specious  in  themselves,  fa- 
vored Uiis  denial :  jir8t^  that  no  such  papers  as 
those  described  by  Mr.  Adams  were  to  be  found 
in  the  department  of  State ;  secondly^  that  in 
the  original  draft  of  Mr.  Monroe's  letter  it  had 
first  been  written  that  the  affirmative  answers 
of  his  cabinet  to  his  two  interrogatories  were 
^  unanimouB^^  which  word  had  been  crossed 
out  and  ^  explicit "  substituted. 

With  some  these  two  circumstances  weighed 
nothing  against  the  testimony  of  two  witnesses, 
and  the  current  corroborating  incidents  of  tradi- 
tion. In  the  lapse  of  twenty-seven  years,  and 
in  the  changes  to  which  our  cabinet  officers  and 
the  clerks  of  departments  are  subjected,  it  was 
easy  to  believe  that  the  papers  had  been  mislaid 
or  lost — ^&r  easier  than  to  believe  that  Mr. 
Adams  could  have  been  mistaken  in  the  entry 
made  in  his  diary  at  the  time.  And  as  to  the 
substitution  of  '^explicit"  for  "unanimous," 
that  was  known  to  be  necessary  in  order  to 
avoid  the  violation  of  the  role  which  forbid  the 


disclosure  of  individual  opinions  in  the  cabinet 
consultations.  With  others,  and  especially  with 
the  political  friends  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  they  were 
received  as  full  confirmation  of  his  denuJ,  and 
left  them  at  liberty  to  accept  his  present  opin- 
ions as  those  of  his  whole  life,  uninyalidated  by 
previous  personal  discrepancy,  and  unoounter- 
acted  by  the  weight  of  a  cabinet  decision  under 
Mr.  Monroe:    and  accordingly  the   new-bon 
dogma  of  no  power  in  Coiigreta  to  legislale 
upon  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  territories 
became  an  article  of  political  faith,  incorporated 
in  the  creed,  and  that  for  action,  of  a  large  poli- 
tical party.    What  is  now  brought  to  li^t  oi 
the  proceedings  in  the  Senate  in  '37-'38  show? 
this  to  have  been  a  mistake — that  Mr.  Calhoun 
admitted  the  power  in  1820,  when  he  favored 
the  compromise  and  blamed  Mr.  Randolph  for 
opposing  it ;  that  he  admitted  it  again  in  183^. 
when  he  submitted  his  own  resolutions,  and 
voted  for  those  of  Mr.  Clay.  It  so  happened  th^ 
no  one  recollected  these  proceedings  of  '37-'^ 
at  the  time  of  the  Oregon  debate  of  '47-'48.  The 
writer  of  this  View,  though  possessing  a  me- 
mory credited  as  tenacious,  did  not  recollect 
them,  nor  remember  them  at  all,  until  foooi 
among   the  materials  collected  for  this  his- 
tory— a  circumstance  which  he  attributes  to  | 
his  repugnance  to  the  whole  debate,  and  tak- 
ing  no   part  in  the   proceedings    except  to 
vote. 

The  cabinet  consultation  of  1820  was  not 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Calhoun  in  his  aTowal  of 
1838,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  the  object  of  thb 
View  to  pursue  his  connection  with  that  private 
executive  counselling.  The  only  material  in- 
quiry is  as  to  his  approval  of  the  Missouri  oob- 
promise  at  the  time  it  was  adopted ;  and  that  is 
fully  established  by  himself. 

It  would  be  a  labor  unworthy  of  history  to 
look  up  the  conduct  of  any  public  man,  and 
trace  him  through  shifting  scenes,  with  a  mere 
view  to  personal  effect— with  a  mere  Tiew  to 
personal  disparagement,  by  showing  him  oontzi- 
dictory  and  inconsistent  at  some  period  of  hii 
course.  Such  a  labor  would  be  idle^  unprofit- 
able, and  derogatory ;  but,  when  a  change  takee 
place  in  a  public  man's  opinions  which  leads  to 
a  change  of  conduct,  and  into  a  new  line  d 
action  disastrous  to  the  country,  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  history  to  note  the  fact,  and  to  expose 
the  contradiction—not  for  personal  dispan^ 


ANKO  188a    MARTIF  YAK  BUBEET,  PBSSmEFT. 


143 


ment— but  to  ooimterBct  the  fozoe  of  tbe  new 
and  dangerous  opinion. 

In  this  sense  it  becomes  an  obligatory  task  to 
show  the  change,  or  rather  changes,  in  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's opinions  on  the  constitutional  power  of 
Congress  over  the  existence  of  slsTery  in  the 
national  territories;  and  these  changes  hare 
been  great—too  great  to  admit  of  followers  if 
thej  had  been  known.  First,  fully  admitting' 
the  power,  and  justifying  its  ezerdse  in  the 
largest  and  highest  possible  case.  Nej:t,  ad- 
mitting the  power,  but  deprecating  its  ezerdse 
in  certain  limited,  specified,  qualified  cases. 
TVien,  denying  it  in  a  limited  and  specified  case. 
PinaUy,  denying  the  power  any  where,  and 
every  where,  either  in  Congress,  or  in  the  terri- 
torial legislature  as  its  delegate,  or  in  the  people 
as  soyerdgn.  The  last  of  these  mutations,  or 
rather  the  one  before  the  last  (for  there  are  but 
few  who  can  go  the  whole  loigth  of  the  three 
propositions  in  the  Oregon  speech),  has  been 
adopted  by  a  huge  political  party  and  acted 
upon ;  and  with  deplorable  effect  to  the  coun- 
try. Holding  the  Missouri  compromise  to  have 
been  unconstitutional,  they  have  abrogated  it 
as  a  nullity;  and  in  so  doing  have  done  more  to 
disturb  the  harmony  of  this  Union,  to  unsettie 
its  foundations,  to  shake  its  stability,  and  to 
prapare  the  two  halyes  of  the  Union  for  part- 
ing,  than  any  act,  or  aU  acts  put  together,  since 
the  commencement  of  the  federal  goremment 
This  lamentable  act  could  not  have  been  done^ 
—could  not  haye  found  a  party  to  do  it, — ^if  Mr. 
Calhoun  had  not  changed  his  opinion  on  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
line;  or  if  he  could  have  recollected  in  1848 
that  he  approyed  that  line  in  1820 ;  and  far- 
ther remembered,  that  he  saw  nothing  uncon- 
stitutional in  it  as  late  as  1838.  The  change 
being  now  shown,  and  the  imperfection  of  his 
memory  made  manifest  by  his  own  testknony,  it 
becomes  certain  that  the  new  doctrine  was  an 
after-thought,  disowned  by  its  antecedents— a 
figment  of  the  brain  lately  hatched— and  which 
its  anthor  would  haye  been  estopped  fi^m  pro- 
mulgating if  these  antecedents  had  been  recol- 
lected. History  now  pleads  them  as  an  esti^pel 
against  his  followers. 

Mr.  Monroe,  in  his  letter  to  General  Jackson, 
immediately  after  the  establishment  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise,  said  that  that  compromise 
settled  the  slayory  agjitation  which  threatened 


to  break  up  the  Union.  Thirty-four  years  of 
quiet  and  harmony  under  that  settlement  bear 
witness  to  the  truth  of  these  words,  spoken  in 
the  fulness  of  patriotic  gratitude  at  seeing  his 
country  escape  from,  a  great  danger.  The  year 
1854  has  seen  the  abrogation  of  that  compro- 
mise ;  and  with  its  abrogation  the  reyiyal  of  the 
agitation,  and  with  a  force  and  fury  never  known 
before :  and  now  may  be  seen  in  fact  what  was 
hypothetically  foreseen  by  Mr.  Calhoun  in  1838, 
when,  as  the  fruit  of  this  agitation,  he  saw  the 
destruction  of  all  sympathy  between  the  two 
sections  of  the  Union— obliteration  from,  the  me- 
mory of  all  proud  recollections  of  former  com- 
mon danger  and  gloiy— hatred  in  the  hearts  of 
the  North  and  the  South,  more  deadly  than 
eyer  existed  between  two  neighboring  nations* 
May  we  not  haye  to  witness  the  remainder  of 
his  pn^hetic  vision — "Two  people  made  op 
ONE  ! " 

P.  S. — ^After  this  chapter  had  been  written, 
the  author  recmved  authentic  information  that, 
during  the  time  that  John  M.  Clayton,  Esq.  of 
Delaware,  was  Secretary  of  State  under  Presi- 
dent Taylor  (1849-50),  evidence  had  been 
found  in  the  Department  of  State,  of  the  feet, 
that  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  of  the  rest 
of  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet,  had  been  filed  there. 
In  consequence  a  note  of  inquiry  was  addressed 
to  Mr.  Clayton,  who  answered  (under  date  of 
July  19th,  1855)  as  follows : 

"  In  reply  to  your  inquiry  I  haye  to  state  that 
I  have  no  recollection  of  haying  eyer  met  with 
Mr.  Calhoun's  answer  to  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet 
queries,  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise.  It  had  not  been  found  while 
I  was  in  tiie  department  of  state,  as  I  was  then 
informed :  but  the  archiyes  of  the  department 
disclose  the  feet,  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  other 
members  of  the  cabinet^  did  answer  Mr.  Mon- 
roe's questions.  It  appears  by  an  index  that 
these  answers  were  filed  among  the  archiyes  of 
that  department  I  was  told  they  had  been 
abstracted  from  the  records,  and  could  not  be 
found ;  but  I  did  not  make  a  search  for  them 
myself.  I  haye  never  doubted  that  Mr.  Calhoun 
at  least  acquiesced  in  the  decision  of  the  cabinet 
of  that  day.  Since  I  left  the  Department  of 
State  I  have  heard  it  rum<ved  that  Mr.  Cat* 
houa's  answer  to  Mr.  Monroe's  queries  had 
been  found ;  but  I  know  not  upon  what  axH 
thority  the  statement  was  made." 


144 


TBOBTY  TRABff  VIEW. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


DEATH  OF  OOMMOI>OBS  BODOEB8,  AND  NOtlGB 
OF  HIB  LIFE  AND  OHABACTES. 


Mt  idea  of  the  perfect  nayal  Gommander  had 
been  formed  from  history,  and  from  the  study 
of  such  characters  as  the  Von  Tromps  and  De 
Ruy  ters  of  Holland,  the  Blakes  of  England,  and 
the  De  TourviUes  of  France — men  modest  and 
virtuous,  frank  and  sincere,  brave  and  patriotic, 
gentle  in  peace;  terrible  m  war ;  formed  for  high 
command  by  nature ;  and  raising  themselves  to 
their  proper  sphere  by  their  own  exertions  from 
low  beginnings.  When  I  first  saw  Commodore 
RoDOSRs,  which  was  after  I  had  reached  sena- 
torial age  and  station,  he  recalled  to  me  the  idea 
of  those  model  admirals ;  and  subsequent  ao- 
quaintance  confirmed  the  impression  then  made. 
He  was  to  me  the  complete  impersonation  of 
my  idea  of  the  perfisct  naval  commander — ^per- 
son, mind,  and  manners ;  with  the  qualities  for 
command  grafted  on  the  groundwork  of  a  good 
dtissen  and  good  father  of  a  &mily ;  and  all 
lodged  in  a  frame  to  bespeak  the  seaman  and 
the  officer. 

His  very  figure  and  fkoe  were  those  of  the 
naval  hero — such  as  we  conceive  from  naval 
songs  and  ballads ;  and,  from  the  course  of  life 
which  the  sea  ofEkser  leads— exposed  to  the 
double  peril  of  waves  and  war,  and  contending 
with  the  storms  of  the  elements  as  well  as  with 
the  storm  of  battle.  We  associate  the  idea  of 
bodUy  power  with  such  a  Me ;  and  when  we 
find  them  united — ^the  heroic  qualities  m  a  frame 
of  powerful  muscular  development — ^we  expe- 
rience a  gratified  feeling  of  completeness,  which 
flilfils  a  natural  expectation,  and  leaves  nothing 
to  be  desired.  And  when  the  same  great  quali- 
ties are  found,  as  they  often  are,  in  the  man  of 
slight  and  slender  frame,  it  requires  some  effort 
of  reason  to  conquer  a  feeling  of  surprise  at  a 
eombination  which  is  a  contrast,  and  which 
presents  so  much  power  in  a  frame  so  little 
promising  it ;  and  hence  all  poets  and  orators, 
all  painters  and  sculptors,  all  the  dealers  in  im- 
aginary perfections,  give  a  corresponding  figure 
of  strragth  and  force  to  the  heroes  they  create. 
Cmnmodore  Rodgers  needed  no  help  firom  the 


creative  imaginatiop  to  endow  him  with  the  form 
which  naval  heroism  might  require.  His  person 
was  of  the  middle  height^  stout,  square,  solid, 
compact ;  well-proportioned ;  and  combining  in 
the  perfect  degree  the  idea  of  strength  and  en- 
durance with  the  reality  of  manly  comeliness — 
the  statue  of  Mars,  in  the  rough  state,  before  the 
conscious  chisel  had  lent  the  last  polish.  His 
face,  stem  in  the  outline,  was  relieved  by  a 
gentle  and  ben^  expression — grave  with  the 
overshadowing  of  an  amjde  and  capacious  fore- 
head and  eyebrows.  Courageneed  not  be  named 
among  the  qualities  of  Americans ;  the  question 
would  be  to  find  one  without  it.  His  skill,  oi- 
terprise,  promptitude  and  talent  fer  oommandj 
were  shown  in  the  war  of  1812  with  Great 
Britain;  in  the  quan  war  of  1799  with  the 
French  Republic— gtum  only  as  it  concenied 
political  relations,  real  as  it  concerned  desperate 
and  brilliant  combats  at  sea ;  and  in  the  Medi- 
terranean wars  with  the  Barbaiy  States,  when 
those  States  were  formidable  in  that  sea  and 
held  Europe  under  tribute ;  and  which  tribnte 
fhmi  the  United  States  was  relinqnished  by 
Tripoli  and  Tunis  at  the  end  of  the  war  with 
these  States — Commodore  Rodgers  oonmiand- 
ing  at  the  time  as  successor  to  Barron  and 
Preble.  It  was  at  the  end  of  this  war,  1801  ao 
valiantly  conducted  and  so  triumphantly  con- 
cluded, that  the  reigning  Pope,  Pius  the  Seventh, 
publicly  dedared  that  America  had  done  more 
for  Christendom  against  the  Barbary  States, 
than  all  the  powers  of  Europe  combined. 

He  was  first  lieutenant  on  the  Constellatioik 
when  that  frigate,  under  Truxton,  vanqnidied 
and  captured  the  French  frigate  Insni^gent; 
and  great  as  his  merit  was  in  the  action,  where 
he  showed  himself  to  be  the  proper  second  to  aa 
able  commander,  it  was  greater  in  what  took 
place  after  it  i  and  in  which  steadiness,  firmncsi& 
humanity,  vigilance,  endurance,  and  seamanship, 
were  carried  to  their  highest  pitch ;  and  in  all 
which  his  honors  were  shared  by  the  then  strip- 
ling midshipman,  afterwards  the  brilliant  Com- 
modore Porter. 

The  Insurgent  having  struck,  and  part  of  her 
crew  been  transferred  to  the  Constellatioa, 
Lieut.  Rodgers  and  Midshipman  Porter  wen 
on  board  the  prize,  superintending  the  trans- 
fer, when  a  tempest  arose — ^the  ships  parted— 
and  dark  night  came  on.  There  were  still  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  Fremdi  prisoners  on 


ANKO  1888.    MiOtTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDEMT. 


145 


board.  The  two  joxmg  officers  had  bat  ele?en 
men — ^thirteen  in  aO — ^to  gotid  thirteen  tunes 
tbeir  number;  and  work  a  crippled  flngate  at 
the  same  time^  and  get  her  into  port.  And 
nobly  did  they  do  it.  For  three  days  and  nights 
did  these  thirteen  (though  fresh  from  a  bloody 
conflict  which  strained  eTeiy  ftcnlty  and  brou^t 
demands  for  rest),  without  sleep  or  repose,  arm- 
ed to  the  teeth,  watching  with  eye  and  ear,  stand 
to  the  arduous  duty — sailing  thehr  ship,  restrain- 
ing their  prisoners,  solacing  the  wounded — 
ready  to  kill,  and  hurting  no  one.  They  did  not 
sail  at  random,  or  for  the  nearest  port;  but, 
fiuthf ul  to  the  orders  of  their  commander,  given 
under  different  circumstances,  steered  for  St 
Kitts,  in  the  West  Indies — arriyed  there  safely 
— and  were  reoeiTed-with  triumph  and  admirsr 
tion. 

Such  an  exploit  equalled  any  fame  that  could 
be  gained  in  battle ;  for  it  brought  into  requi- 
sition all  the  qualities  for  command  which  high 
command  requires;  and  foreshadowed  the  fii- 
ture  eminence  of  these  two  young  officers. 
What  fimmess,  steadiness,  yigilsnoe^  endurance, 
snd  courage — fiff  aboye  that  which  the  battle- 
field requires !  and  one  of  these  young  officers, 
sa  slight  and  slender  lad,  as  frail  to  the  look  as 
the  other  was  powerful ;  and  yet  each  acting 
liis  part  with  the  same  heroic  steadiness  and 
perseyeranoe,  coolness  and  humanity !  They 
Isad  no  irons  to  secure  a  single  man.  The  one 
liundred  and  seyenty-three  French  were  loose 
in  the  lower  hold,  a  sentinel  only  at  each  gang- 
^way ;  and  yigilance,  and  readiness  to  use  their 
arms,  the  only  resource  of  the  little  crew.  If 
liistoiy  has  a  parallel  to  this  deed  I  haye  not 
seen  it;  and  to  yalue  it  in  all  its  extent,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  these  prisoners  were 
Frendimen — ^their  inherent  courage  exalted  by 
the  bensj  of  the  reyolution — ^themselyes  fresh 
from  a  murderous  conflict— the  decks  of  the 
ship  still  red  and  slippery  with  the  blood  of 
their  comrades ;  and  they  with  a  right,  both 
legal  and  moral,  to  recoyer  their  liberty  if  they 
could.  These  three  days  and  nights,  still  more 
than  the  yictoiy  which  preceded  them,  earned 
for  Rodgers  the  captaincy,  and  for  Porter  the 
lieutenancy,  with  which  they  were  soon  respeo- 
tiyely  honored. 

American  cruisers  had  gained  credit  in  the 
war  of  the  Reyolution,  and  in  the  quari  war  with 
the  French  Republic ;  and  American  squadrons 
Vol.  II.— 10 


had  bearded  the  Barbary  Powers  in  tfaefar  dens, 
after  chasing  their  piratical  yessels  from  the 
seas :  but  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  with  her 
one  thousand  and  sixty  yessels  of  war  on  her 
nayal  list,  and  aboye  seyen  hundred  of  these  for 
seryice,  her  fleets  swelled  with  the  ships  of  all 
nations,  exalted  with  the  idea  of  inyindlnlity^, 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty  guns  on  the  decks 
of  her  first-class  men-of-war— «ny  nayal  contest 
with  such*  a  power,  with  seyenteen  yessels  for 
the  sea^  ranging  frtnn  twelye  to  forty-four  guns 
(which  was  the  totality  whidi  the  American 
nayal  register  could  then  show),  seemed  an  in- 
sanity. And  insanity  it  would  haye  been  with 
eyen  twenty  times  as  many  yessels,  and  doable 
their  number  of  guns,  if  naral  battles  with  riyal 
fleets  had  been  intended.  Fortunately  we  had 
nayal  officers  at  that  time  who  understood  the 
yirtue  of  cruising,  and  bdieyed  they  could  do 
what  Paul  Jones  and  others  had  done  during 
the  war  of  the  Reyolution. 

Political  men  belieyed  nothing  could  be  done 
at  sea  but  to  lose  the  few  yessels  which  we  had; 
that  eyen  cruising  was  out  of  the  question.  Of 
our  seyenteen  yessels,  the  whole  were  in  port 
but  one ;  and  it  was  determined  to  keep  them 
there,  and  the  one  at  sea  with  them,  if  it  had 
the  luck  to  get  in.  I  am  under  no  obligation  to 
make  the  admission,  but  I  am  free  to  acknow- 
ledge, that  I  was  one  of  those  who  supposed 
that  there  was  no  salyation  for  our  seyenteen 
men-of-war  but  to  run  them  as  fiur  up  the  creek 
as  possible,  place  them  under  the  guns  of  bat- 
teries, and  collect  camps  of  militia  about  them, 
to  keep  off  the  British.  This  was  the  policy  at 
the  day  of  the  declaration  of  the  war ;  and  I 
haye  the  less  concern  to  admit  myself  to  haye 
been  participator  in  the  delusion,  because  I 
claim  the  merit  of  haying  profited  firom  expe- 
rience—happy if  I  could  transmit  the  lesson  to 
posterity.  Two  officers  came  to  Washington— 
Bainbridge  and  Stewart  They  spoke  with  Mr. 
Madison,  and  urged  the  feasibility  of  cruising. 
One-half  of  the  whole  number  of  the  British 
men-of-war  were  under  the  dass  of  frigates, 
consequently  no  more  than  matches  for  some 
of  our  seyenteen ;  the  whole  of  her  merchant 
marine  (many  thousands)  were  subject  to  cap- 
ture. Here  was  a  rich  field  lor  cruising ;  and 
the  two  officers,  lor  themselyes  and  brothers, 
boldly  proposed  to  enter  it 
Mr.  Madison  had  seen  the  efficiency  of  cniift* 


146 


THIRTY  YEABS*  VIEW. 


ing  and  privateering,  eyen  against  Great  Britain, 
and  in  our  then  infkntile  condition,  during  the 
war  of  the  Rerolution ;  and  besides  was  a  man 
of  sense,  and  amenable  to  judgment  and  reason. 
He  listened  to  the  two  experienced  and  valiant 
ofQoers ;  and,  without  consulting  Congress, 
which  perhaps  would  have  been  a  fatal  con- 
sultation (for  multitude  of  counsellors  is  not 
the  council  for  bold  decision),  reversed  the 
policy  which  had  been  resolved  upon ;  and,  in 
his  supreme  character  of  iconstitutional  com- 
mander of  the  army  and  navy,  ordered  every 
ship  that  could  cruise  to  get  to  sea  as  soon  as 
possible.  This  I  had  from  Mr.  Monroe,  and  it 
is  due  to  Mr.  Madison  to  tell  it,  who,  vrithout 
pretending  to  a  military  character,  had  the 
merit  of  sanctioning  this  most  vital  vrar  meas- 
ure. 

Commodore  Rodgers  wub  then  in  New  York, 
in  command  of  the  President  (44),  intended  for 
a  part  of  the  harbor  defence  of  that  dty.  With- 
in one  hour  after  he  had  received  his  cruising 
orders,  he  was  under  way.  This  was  the  2l8t 
of  June.  That  night  he  got  information  of  the 
Jamaica  fleet  (merchantmen),  homeward  bound ; 
and  crowded  all  sail  in  the  direction  they  had 
gone,  following  the  Gulf  Stream  towards  the 
east  of  Newfoundland.  While  on  this  track,  on 
the  23d,  a  British  frigate  was  perceived  &r  to 
the  northeast^  and  getting  further  off.  It  was  a 
nobler  object  than  a  fleet  of  merchantmen,  and 
chase  was  immediately  given  her,  and  she 
gained  upon ;  but  not  fast  enough  to  get  along- 
side before  night 

It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  the 
enemy  in  range  of  the  bow-chasers.  Commodore 
Rodgers  determined  to  cripple  her,  and  diminish 
her  speed ;  and  so  come  up  with  her.  He  point- 
ed the  first  gun  himself,  and  pointed  it  well. 
The  shot  struck  the  frigate  in  her  rudder  coat, 
drove  through  her  stem  frame,  and  passed  into 
the  gun-room.  It  was  the  first  gun  fired  during 
the  vrar;  and  was  no  waste  of  ammunition. 
Second  Lieutenant  Gamble,  commander  of  the 
hattery,  pointed  and  discharged  the  second — 
hitting  and  damaging  one  of  the  enemy's  stem 
chasers.  Commodore  Rodgers  fired  the  third 
— chitting  the  stem  again,  and  killing  and  wound- 
ing six  men.  Mr.  Gamble  fired  again.  The  gun 
bunted  1  killing  and  wounding  sixteen  of  her 
own  men,  blowing  up  the  Commodore — ^who  fi^ 
with  A  broken  leg  upon  the  deck.    The  pause 


in  working  the  guns  on  that  side,  occasioned  bj 
this  accident,  enabled  the  enemy  to  bring  some 
stem  guns  to  bear,  and  to  lighten  his  vessel  to 
increase  her  speed.  He  cut  away  his  andion, 
stove  and  threw  overboard  his  boats,  and  start- 
ed fourteen  tons  of  water.  Thus  lightened,  be 
escaped.  It  was  the  Belvidera,  36  guns,  Captam 
Byron.  The  President  would  have  taken  ber 
with  all  ease  if  she  had  got  alongside;  and  of 
that  the  English  captain  showed  himself  dulj, 
and  excusably  sensible. 

The  frigate  having  esci^ped,  the  Commodore, 
regardless  of  his  broken  1^,  hauled  up  to  its 
course  in  pursuit  of  the  Jamaica  fleet,  and  sooo 
got  information  that  it  consisted  of  eightj-fiic 
sail,  and  was  under  convoy  of  four  men-of-war; 
one  of  them  a  two-decker,  another  a  frigate; 
and  that  he  was  on  its  track.  Passing  Kev- 
foundland  and  finding  the  sea  well  sprinkled 
with  ths  signs  of  West  India  fruit — orange  peel^ 
cocoanut  shells,  pine-apple  rinds,  Ac.— the  Com- 
modore knew  himself  to  be  in  Uie  wake  of  the 
fleet,  and  made  every  exertion  to  come  up  witl^ 
it  before  it  could  reach  the  chops  of  the  chaood: 
but  in  vain.  When  almost  in  sight  of  the  Eng- 
lish coast,  and  no  glimpse  obtained  of  the  fleet, 
he  was  compelled  to  tack,  run  south:  vxii 
after  an  extended  cmise,  return  to  the  United 
States. 

The  Commodore  had  missed  the  two  gnft 
objects  of  his  ambition — the  fleet  and  the  frigate; 
but  the  cruise  was  not  barren  either  in  material 
or  moral  results.  Seven  British  merchantmea 
were  captured — one  American  recaptured-tk 
English  coast  had  been  approached.  With  iiB- 
punity  an  American  frigate — one  of  those  la- 
sultingly  styled  «  fir-built,  with  a  bit  of  striped 
bunting  at  her  mast-head," — had  almost  looked 
into  that  narrow  channel  which  is  considered 
the  sanctum  of  a  British  ship.  An  alarm  ^ 
been  i^read,  and  a  squadron  of  seven  meo-o^ 
war  (four  of  them  frigates  and  one  a  8ixtj-f<^ 
gun  ship)  were  assembled  to  capture  him;  ^ 
of  them  the  Belvidera,  which  had  escaped  at  tbe 
bursting  of  the  President's  gun,  and  spread  tbe 
news  of  her  being  at  sea. 

It  was  a  great  honor  to  Commodore  Bodgeis 
to  send  such  a  squadron  to  look  after  him;  *oa 
became  still  greater  to  Captain  Hull,  in  ^ 
Constitution,  who  escaped  from  it  after  having 
been  almost  surrounded  by  it  It  was  efenisg 
when  this  captain  began  to  fiJl  in  with  tlat 


ANNO  18S9.    MARTIK  VAN  BUREK,  PRESIDENT. 


147 


squadron,  and  at  dayli^t  found  hunself  almost 
eDcompasaed  hj  it— three  ahead  and  four  astern. 
Then  began  that  chase  which  continued  serenty- 
two  hoors^  in  whidi  soTon  pursoed  one,  and 
seemed  often  (m  the  point  of  dosing  on  their 
prise;  in  which  eyeiy  means  of  progress,  from 
Toeibd  topsails  to  kedging  and  towing,  was  pat 
into  requisition  by  either  party— the  one  to 
escape,  the  other  to  oyertake;  in  whidi  the 
stem-chasers  of  one  were  often  replying  to  the 
bow-chasers  of  the  other ;  and  the  greatest  pre- 
cision of  manoBUTiing  required  to  avoid  filling 
imder  the  guns  of  some  while  avoiding  those  of 
others ;  and  which  ended  with  patting  an  escape 
on  a  level  with  a  great  victory.  G^>tain  Hull 
brought  his  vessel  safe  into  port,  and  without 
the  sacrifice  of  her  equipment — ^not  an  anchor 
having  been  cat  away,  boat  stove,  or  gun  thrown 
overboard  to  gain  speed  by  lightening  the  vessel 
It  was  a  brilliant  result,  with  all  the  moral 
effects  of  victory,  and  a  splendid  vindication  of 
the  policy  of  cruising — showing  that  we  had 
seamanship  to  escape  the  force  which  we  could 
not  fight 

Commodore  Rodgers  made  another  extended 
cruise  during  this  war,  a  circuit  of  eight  thou- 
sand miles,  traversmg  the  high  seas,  coasting 
the  shorea  of  both  continents,  searching  wher- 
ever the  cruisers  or  merchantmen  of  the  enemy 
were  expected  to  be  found ;  capturing  what  was 
within  his  means,  avoiding  the  rest.  A  British 
,  government  packet,  with  nearly  (^00,000  in 
J  specie,  was  taken;  many  merchantmen  were 
taken ;  and,  though  an  opportunity  did  not  offer 
to  engage  a  frigateof  equal  or  neariy  equal  force, 
and  to  gain  one  of  those  electrifying  victories  for 
which  our  cruisers  were  so  remarkable,  yet  the 
moral  effect  was  great— demonstrating  the  am- 
ple capacity  of  an  American  frigate  to  go  where 
she  pleased  in  spite  of  the  ^  thousand  ships  of 
war  "  of  the  assumed  mistress  of  the  seas ;  car- 
rying damage  and  alarm  to  the  foe,  and  avoiding 
misfortune  to  itsel£ 

At  the  attempt  of  the  British  upon  Baltimore 
Commodore  Rodgers  was  in  command  of  the 
maritime  defences  of  that  dty,  and,  having  no 
means  of  contending  with  the  British  fleet  in 
the  bay,  he  assembled  all  the  seamen  of  the 
ships-of-war  and  of  the  flotilla,  and  entered  judi- 
dously  into  the  combinations  for  the  land  de- 


Humane  ibding  was  %  characteristic  of  this 


brave  officer,  and  was  verified  in  all  the  relations 
of  his  life,  and  in  his  constant  conduct  Stand* 
ing  on  the  bank  of  the  Susquehanna  river,  at 
Havre  de  Grace,  one  cold  vrinter  day,  the  river 
flooded  and  filled  with  floating  ice,  he  saw  (with 
others),  at  a  long  distance,  a  living  object — dis- 
cerned to  be  a  human  being— carried  down  the 
stream.  He  ventured  in,  against  all  remon- 
strance, and  brought  the  object  safe  to  shore. 
It  was  a  colored  woman — ^to  him  a  human  being, 
doomed  to  a  fr^htfrd  death  unless  relieved ;  and 
heroically  relieved  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life. 
He  was  humane  in  battle.  That  was  shown  in 
the  affair  of  the  Little  Belt— chased,  hailed, 
fought  (the  year  before  the  war),  and  compelled 
to  answer  the  h^l,  and  tell  who  she  was,  with 
expense  of  blood,  and  largely;  but  still  the 
smallest  possible  quantity  that  would  accom- 
plish the  purpose.  The  encounter  took  pbuse  m 
the  night,  and  because  the  British  captain  would 
not  answer  the  American  hail.  Judging  from 
the  inferiority  of  her  fire  that  he  was  engaged 
with  an  unequal  antagonist,  th&  American  Com- 
modore suspended  his  own  flre,  while  still  re- 
ceiving broadsides  from  his  arrogant  little  adver- 
sary ;  and  only  resumed  it  when  indispensable 
to  his  own  safety,  and  the  enforcement  of  the 
question  which  he  had  put  An  answer  was 
obtained  after  thirty-one  had  been  killed  or 
wounded  on  board  the  British  vessel ;  and  this 
at  six  leagues  from  the  American  coast :  and, 
the  doctrine  of  no  right  to  stop  a  vessel  on  the 
high  seas  to  ascertain  her  character  not  having 
been  then  invented,  no  political  consequence 
followed  this  bloody  enforcement  of  maritime 
polico— exasperated  against  eadi  other  as  the 
two  nations  were  at  the  time. 

At  the  death  of  Decatur,  kiUed  in  that  Ui- 
mentable  duel,  I  have  heard  Mr.  Randolph  tell, 
and  he  alone  could  tdl  it,  of  the  agony  of  Rod- 
gers as  he  stood  over  his  dying  firiend,  in  bodily 
contention  with  his  own  grief— convulsed  with- 
in, calm  without ;  and  keeping  down  the  strug- 
gling anguish  of  the  soul  by  dint  of  muscular 
power. 

That  feeling  heart  was  doomed  to  suffer  % 
great  agony  in  the  untimdy  death  of  a  heroic 
son,  emulating  the  generous  devotion  of  the 
fether,  and  perishmg  m  the  wweB,  in  vun  efforts 
to  save  comrades  more  exhausted  than  himself; 
and  to  whom  he  nobly  relinquished  the  means 
of  his  own  safely.    It  was  spared  another  grief 


148 


THIBTT  TEABST  VIjsw. 


of  a  kindred  iiAtiire  (not  haTing  Iired  to  Bee  it), 
in  the  death  of  another  heroic  eon,  lost  in  the 
etoop-of-war  Albany,  in  one  of  those  oafaunitoos 
firanderinge  at  sea  in  which  the  mystery  of  an 
unseen  &te  deepens  the  shades  of  death,  and 
t\mAMn»  the  depths  of  sorrow — leaving  the 
hearts  of  ikr  distant  friends  a  prey  to  a  long 
agmy  of  hope  and  fear — only  to  be  solved  in 
an  agony  still  deeper. 

Commodore  Bodgers  died  at  the  head  of  the 
American  navy,  without  having  seen  the  rank 
of  Admiral  established  in  our  naval  service,  for 
whidi  I  Toted  when  senator,  and  hoped  to  have 
seen  conferred  on  him,  and  on  others  who  have 
done  so  much  to  exalt  the  name  of  their  coun- 
tiy  'f  and  which  rank  I  deem  essential  to  the 
good  of  the  service,  even  in  the  cruising  system 
I  deem  alooe  suitable  to  us. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

AHn-DTJELLINO  ACT. 

Thk  death  of  Mr.  Jonathan  Cill^,  a  xepresenr 
tative  in  Congress  from  the  State  of  Maine, 
killed  in  a  duel  with  rifles,  with  Mr.  Graves  of 
Kentucky,  led  to  the  passage  of  an  act  with 
severe  penalties  against  duelling^  in  the  District 
of  Columbia^  or  out  of  it  upon  agreement  within 
the  District  The  penalties  were--death  to  all 
the  survivors,  when  any  one  was  killed :  a  five 
years  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  for  giv- 
ing or  accepting  a  challenge.  like  all  acts 
passed  under  a  sudden  excitement,  this  act  was 
defective,  and  more  the  result  of  good  intentions 
than  of  knowledge  of  human  nature.  Passions 
of  the  mind,  like  diseases  of  the  body,  are  liable 
to  break  out  in  a  different  form  when  suppressed 
In  the  one  they  had  assumed.  Xo  physician 
suppresses  an  eruption  without  considering  what 
is  to  become  of  the  virus  which  is  escaping^  if 
stopped  and  confined  to  the  body :  no  legislar 
tor  should  sujqpress  an  evil  without  considering 
whether  a  worse  one  is  at  the  same  time  planted. 
I  was  a  young  member  of  the  general  assembly 
of  Tennessee  (1809),  when  a  most  worthy  mem- 
ber (Mr.  Bobert  0.  Foster),  took  credit  to  him- 
self for  having  pat  down  billiard  tables  in  Nasb- 
ville.    Another  most  worthy  member  (General 


Joseph  Dixon)  asked  hfan  how  many  card  tables 
he  had  put  up  in  their  ph^e?  This  was  a  side  of 
the  account  to  which  the  sup|»^e8sor  of  bOliard 
tables  had  not  looked :  and  which  opened  up  a 
view  of  serious  consideratton  to  ewery  person  in- 
trusted with  the  responsible  business  of  legisla- 
tion—a  business  requiring  so  much  knowledge  of 
human  ^lature,  and  so  seldom  invoking  the  little 
we  possess.  It  has  been  on  my  mind  ever  snnee; 
and  I  have  had  constant  occasions  to  witness  its 
disregard— and  seldom  more  lamentably  than  in 
the  case  of  this  anti-duelling  act  It  looked  to 
one  evil,  and  saw  nothing  else.  It  did  not  look 
to  the  assassinations,  under  the  pretext  of  sdi^ 
defence,  which  were  to  rise  up  in  place  of  the 
regular  dueL  Certainly  it  is  deplomble  to  see 
a  young  man,  the  hope  of  his  fether  and  niother— 
a  ripe  man,  the  head  of  a  fiunily — an  eminent 
man,  necessary  to  his  country— struck  down  in 
the  duel ;  and  should  be  prevented  if  poesibleL 
Still  this  deplorable  practice  is  not  so  bad  as  the 
bowie  knife,  and  the  revolver,  and  their  pretext 
of  self-defence— thirsting  for  blood.  In  the 
duel,  there  is  at  least  consent  on  both  sideSj 
with  a  preliminaiy  opportunity  for  settlement, 
with  a  chance  for  the  law  to  arrest  them,  and 
room  fmr  the  interposition  of  friends  as  the 
ai&ir  goes  on.  There  is  usually  eqoality  of 
terms ;  and  it  would  not  be  called  an  aflSur  of 
honor,  if  honor  was  not  to  prevail  all  round ; 
and  if  the  satisfying  a  point  of  honor,  and  not 
vengeance,  was  the  end  to  be  attained.  Finally, 
in  the  regular  duel,  the  principals  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  seconds  (for  no  man  can  be  made 
a  second  without  his  consent) ;  and  as  both 
these  are  required  by  the  duelling  code  (for  the 
sake  of  feimess  and  humanity),  to  be  ftee  from 
ill  will  or  grudge  towards  the  adversary  prin> 
dpal,  they  are  expected  to  terminate  the  affiur 
as  soon  as  the  point  of  honor  is  satisfied — and, 
the  less  the  injury,  so  much  the  better.  The 
only  exception  to  these  rules  is,  where  the 
principals  are  in  such  relations  to  each  otber  as 
to  admit  of  no  accommodation,  and  the  injury 
such  as  to  admit  of  no  compromise.  In  the 
knife  and  revolver  business,  all  this  is  different 
There  is  no  preliminary  interval  for  settlement- 
no  chance  for  oflScers  of  justice  to  intervene — no 
room  for  friends  to  interpose.  Instead  of  equal- 
ity of  terms,  every  advantage  is  sought  Instead 
of  consent,  the  victim  is  set  upon  at  the  moet 
unguarded  moment    Instead  of  satisfying  a 


ANNO  1880.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRKBIDBNT. 


149 


point  of  honor,  it  is  Yengeioee  to  be  (^tted. 
Nor  does  the  differeooe  Btop  with  death.  In 
the  duel,  the  nnhurt  principal  Booms  to  continue 
the  combat  upon  his  disabled  adyersaiy:  mthe 
knife  and  reyolyer  case,  the  hero  <tf  these  wei^H 
ons  continues  firing  and  stablwig  while  the 
prostrate  body  of  the  dying  man  g^yes  a  sign  of 
li£3.  In  the  duel  the  suniyor  neyer  aaaaila  the 
character  of  the  fidlen :  in  the  knife  and  reyol- 
yer case,  the  first  moyement  of  the  yictor  is  to 
attadc  the  character  of  his  yiclim— to  accuse 
him  of  an  intent  to  murder;  and  to  make  out  a 
case  of  self-defence,  by  making  oat  a  case  of 
premeditated  attadc  against  the  other.  And  in 
such  felse  accusation,  the  French  proyerb  is 
usually  yerified— -/Ac  dead  and  the  ab$eiU  are 
altoays  in  the  torong. 

The  anti-duelling  act  did  not  suppress  the 
passions  in  which  duels  originate :  it  only  sup- 
pressed one  mode,  and  that  the  least  reyolting^  in 
which  these  passions  could  manifest  themselyes. 
It  did  not  siqypress  the  homicidal  intent— but 
gaye  it  a  new  form :  and  now  many  members  of 
Congress  go  into  their  seats  with  deadly  weapons 
under  their  garments — ^ready  to  insult  with  foul 
language,  and  prepared  to  IdU  if  the  language  is 
resented.  The  act  should  haye  pursued  the 
homicidal  intent  into  whateyer  form  it  might 
assume ;  and,  therefore,  should  hare  been  made 
to  include  all  unjustifiable  homicides. 

The  law  was  also  mistaken  in  the  nature  of 
its  penalties :  they  are  not  of  a  kind  to  be  en- 
forced, if  incurred.  It  is  in  yain  to  attempt  to 
punish  more  ^ominiously,  and  more  seyerely, 
a  duel  than  an  assassination.  The  ofiences, 
though  both  great,  are  of  yety  different  degrees; 
and  human  nature  will  recognize  the  difference 
though  the  law  may  not :  and  the  result  will 
be  seen  in  the  conduct  of  juries,  and  in  the  tem- 
per of  the  pardoning  power.  A  species  of  pen- 
alty unknown  to  the  common  law,  and  rejected 
by  it,  and  only  held  good  when  a  man  was  the 
vassal  of  his  lord — ^the  dogma  that  the  piiyate 
injury  to  the  femily  is  merged  in  the  public 
wrong — ^this  species  of  penally  (amends  to  the 
family)  is  called  for  by  the  progress  of  homi- 
cides in  our  country;  and  not  as  a  substitute  for 
the  death  penalty,  but  cumulatiye.  Under  this 
dogma,  a  small  injury  to  a  man's  person  brings 
him  a  moneyed  indemnity ;  in  the  greatest  of  all 
injuries,  that  of  depriying  a  femily  of  its  sup- 
port and  protector,  no  compensation  is  allowed. 


This  is  preposterous,  and  leads  to  deadly  con- 
sequences. It  is  cheaper  now  to  kill  a  man, 
than  to  hurt  him ;  and,  accordingly,  the  prep- 
aration is  generally  to  kill,  and  not  to  hurt 
The  firequency,  the  wantonness,  the  barbarity, 
the  cold-blooded  cruelty,  and  the  demoniac  leyi- 
ty  with  which  homicides  are  committed  with 
us,  haye  become  the  opprobrium  of  our  country. 
An  incredible  number  of  persons,  and  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  seem  to  haye  taken  the  code  of 
Draco  for  their  law,  and  thdr  own  will  for  its 
execution — ^kill  for  eyery  offenoe.  The  death 
penalty,  prescribed  by  diyine  wisdom,  is  hardl^ 
a  scare^arow.  Some  States  hare  abolished  it 
by  statute  qome  communities,  yirtually,  by  a 
mawkish  sentimentality;  and  eyery  where,  the 
jury  being  the  judge  of  the  law  as  weU  as  of  the 
feet,  find  themselyes  pretty  mnch  in  a  condition 
to  do  as  they  please.  And  unanimity  among 
twelye  being  required,  as  in  the  English  law, 
mstead  of  a  concurrence  of  three-fifths  in  fif- 
teen, as  in  the  Scottish  law,  it  is  hi  the  power 
of  one  or  two  men  to  {veyent  a  conyiction,  eyen 
in  the  most  fiagrant  cases.  In  this  deluge  of 
bloodshed  some  new  remedy  is  called  for  in  ad- 
dition to  the  death  penalty ;  and  it  may  be  best 
found  in  the  principle  of  compensation  to  the 
femily  of  the  slain,  recoyerable  in  eyery  case 
where  the  homicide  was  not  justifiable  under 
the  written  laws  of  the  land.  In  this  wide- 
spread custom  of  carrying  deadly  wei^Kms,  often 
leading  to  homicides  where  there  was  no  pre- 
yious  intent,  some  check  should  be  put  on  a 
practice  so  indicatiye  of  a  bad  heart-— a  heart 
yoid  of  soda!  duty,  and  fetally  bent  on  mis- 
chief;  and  this  check  may  be  found  in  making 
the  feet  of  haying  such  arms  on  the  person  an 
offence  in  itself  prima  facie  eyidence  of  malice^ 
and  to  be  punished  cumulatiyely  by  the  judge ; 
and  that  without  r^;ard  to  the  fiict  whether 
used  or  not  in  the  affiray. 

The  anti-duelling  act  of  1839  was,  there- 
fore, defectiye  in  not  pursuing  the  homicidal 
offonce  into  aU  the  new  forms  it  might  assume ; 
in  not  giying  damages  to  a  bereayed  femily — 
and  not  punishing  the  carrying  of  the  weapon, 
whether  used  or  not — only  accommodating  the 
degree  of  punishment  to  the  more  or  less 
use  that  had  been  made  of  it.  In  the  Halls 
of  Congress  it  should  be  an  offence,  in  it- 
sell^  whether  drawn  or  not,  subjecting  the  of- 
fender to  all  the  penalties  for  a  high  misde- 


150 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


meanoi^-remoTBl  firom  office — disqualification 
to  hold  any  office  of  trnat  or  profit  under  the 
United  States — and  indictment  at  law  hesides. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

8LATEBT  AGITATION  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPBB- 
BENTATIYES,  AND  BETIBINO  OF  SOUTHERN 
MEMBERS  FBOM  THE  HALL. 

The  most  angry  and  portentous  deh&te  wluch 
had  yet  taken  place  in  Congress,  occurred  at 
this  time  in  the  House  of  Representatiyes.  It 
was  brought  on  by  Mr.  William  Slade,  of  Ver- 
mont, who,  besides  presenting  petitions  of  the 
usual  abolition  character,  and  moving  to  refer 
them  to  a  committee,  moyed  their  reference  to  a 
select  committee,  with  mstructions  to  report  a  bill 
in  conformity  to  their  prayer.  This  motion,  in- 
flammatory and  irritating  in  itself  and  without 
practical  legislatiye  object,  as  the  great  majority 
of  the  House  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  it, 
was  rendered  still  more  exasperating  by  the 
manner  of  supporting  it.  The  mover  entered 
faito  a  general  disquisition  on  the  subject  of 
slATery,  all  denundatory,  and  was  proceeding  to 
speak  upon  it  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  other 
States,  in  the  same  spirit,  when  Mr.  Legare,  of 
South  Carolina,  interposed,  and — 

^  Hoped  the  gentleman  from  Vermont  would 
allow  nim  to  make  a  few  remarks  before  he 
proceeded  farther.  He  sincerely  hoped  that 
gentleman  would  consider  well  what  he  was 
about  before  he  ventured  on  such  ground,  and 
that  he  would  take  time  to  consider  what  might 
be  its  probable  consequences.  He  solemnly  en- 
treated him  to  reflect  on  the  possible  results  of 
such  a  course,  which  involved  the  interests  of  a 
nation  and  a  continent  He  would  warn  him, 
not  in  the  language  of  defiance,  which  all  brave 
and  wise  men  despised  but  he  would  warn  him 
hi  the  languaee  of  a  solemn  sense  of  duty,  that 
if  there  was  '^a  spirit  aroused  in  the  North  in 
relation  to  this  subject,'  that  spirit  would  en- 
counter another  spirit  in  the  South  full  as 
stubborn.    He  would  tell  them  that,  when  this 

guestion  was  forced  upon  the  people  of  the 
outlL  they  would  be  ready  to  take  up  the 
gauntlet.  He  concluded  by  urging  on  the  gen- 
tleman from  Vermont  to  ponder  well  on  his 
course  before  he  ventured  to  proceed." 

Mr.  Slade  continued  his  remarks  when  Mr. 
Dawson,  of  Georgia,  asked  him  for  the  floor. 


that  he  might  move  an  adjournment — evidently 
to  carry  off  the  storm  which  he  saw  risiiig.  Mr. 
Slade  refused  to  yield  it ;  so  the  motion  to  ad- 
journ could  not  be  made.  Mr.  Slade  continued, 
and  was  proceeding  to  answer  his  own  inquiry, 
put  to  himself— trAat  was  Slavery  7  when  Mr. 
Dawson  again  asked  for  the  floor,  to  make 
his  motion  of  adjournment  Mr.  Slade  refused 
it:  a  visible  commotion  began  to  pervade  the 
House  —  members  rising,  clustering  together, 
and  talking  with  animation.  Mr.  Slade  can- 
tinned,  and  was  about  reading  a  judicial  opinion 
in  one  of  the  Southern  States  which  defined  a 
slave  to  be  a  chattel — ^when  Mr.  Wise  called 
him  to  order  for  speaking  beside  the  question— 
the  question  being  upon  the  abolition  of  shtvery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  Mr.  Slade's  re- 
marks going  to  its  legal  character,  as  property 
in  a  State.  The  Speaker,  Mr.  John  White,  d 
Kentucky,  sustained  the  call,  saying  it  was  not 
in  order  to  discuss  the  subject  of  slayery  in  any 
of  the  States.  Mr.  Slade  denied  that  he  was 
doing  so,  and  sud  he  was  merely  quoting  a  South- 
ern judicial  dedsicm  as  he  might  quote  a  legal 
opinion  delivered  in  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Robert- 
son, of  Virginia,  moved  that  the  House  adjouiiL 
The  Speaker  pronounced  the  motion  (and  cor- 
rectly), out  of  order,  as  the  member  from  Ver- 
mont was  in  possession  of  the  floor  and  address- 
ing the  House.  He  would,  however,  suggest 
to  the  member  fh)m  Vermont,  who  could  doc 
but  observe  the  state  of  the  House,  to  confine 
himself  strictiy  to  the  subject  of  his  motion. 
Mr.  Slade  went  on  at  great  length,  when  Mr. 
Petrikin,  of  Pennsylvania,  called  him  to  order; 
but  the  Chair  did  not  sustain  the  calL  Mr. 
Slade  went  on,  quoting  from  the  Declaration  d 
Independence,  and  the  constitutions  of  the  sevend 
States,  and  had  got  to  that  of  Vug:inia,  when 
Mr.  Wise  called  him  to  order  for  reading  papeis 
without  the  leave  of  the  House.  The  Speaker 
decided  that  no  paper,  objected  to,  could  he  read 
without  the  leave  of  the  House.  Mr.  Wise 
then  said: 

^'  That  the  gentleman  had  wantonly  discussed 
the  abstract  question  of  slavery,  going  back  to 
the  very  first  day  of  the  creation^  instead  of 
slavery  as  it  existed  in  the  District,  and  the 

e>wers  and  duties  of  Congress  in  relation  to  it 
e  was  now  examining  the  State  constitutions 
to  show  that  as  it  existed  in  the  States  it  was 
against  them,  and  against  the  laws  of  Qod  and 
This  was  out  of  order." 


ANNO  1889.    MARTIN  VAN  BURKN,  PBSBIDKNT. 


161 


Mr.  SUide  explained,  and  argued  in  yindica- 
tion  of  his  course,  and  was  about  to  read  a  me- 
morial of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  an  opinion  of  Mr. 
Madison  on  the  subject  of  slayeiy — ^when  the 
reading  was  objected  to  by  Mr.  GrilBn,  of  South 
Carolina ;  and  the  Speaker  decided  they  could 
not  be  read  without  the  permissbn  of  the  House. 
Mr.  Slade,  without  asking  the  permission  of  the 
House,  which  he  knew  would  not  be  granted, 
assumed  to  understand  the  prohibition  as  ex- 
tending only  to  himself  personally,  said  — 
<<  Then  I  send  them  to  the  clerk:  let  him  read 
themJ'  The  Speaker  decided  that  this  was 
equally  agunst  the  rule.  Then  Mr.  Griffin 
withdrew  the  objection,  and  Mr.  Slade  proceed- 
ed to  read  the  papers,  and  to  conunent  upon 
them  as  he  went  on,  and  was  about  to  go  back 
to  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  show  what  had 
been  the  feeling  there  on  the  subject  of  slaveiy 
preyious  to  the  date  of  Dr.  Franklin's  memorial : 
Mr.  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  inquired  of  the 
Chair  what  the  opinions  of  Yiiginia  fifty  years 
ago  had  to  do  with  the  case  ?  The  Speaker  was 
about  to  reply,  when  Mr.  Wise  rose  with 
warmth,  and  said — '^He  has  discussed  the 
whole  abstract  question  of  slavery:  of  sUivery 
in  Virginia :  of  slavery  in  my  own  district :  and 
I  now  ask  all  my  colleagues  to  retire  with  me 
£rom  this  hall."  Mr.  Slade  reminded  the 
Speaker  that  he  had  not  yielded  the  floor ;  but 
his  progress  was  impeded  by  the  condition  of 
the  House,  and  the  many  exclamations  of  mem- 
bers, among  whom  Mr.  Halsey,  of  (Georgia,  was 
heard  calling  on  the  Georgia  delegation  to  with- 
draw with  him ;  and  Mr.  Rhett  was  heard  pro- 
daunmg,  that  the  South  Carolina  members  had 
already  consulted  together,  and  agreed  to  have 
a  meeting  at  three  o'dock  in  the  committee 
room  of  the  District  ai  Columbia.  Here  the 
Speaker  interposed  to  calm  the  House,  standing 
up  in  his  place  and  saying: 

"  The  gentieman  from  Vermont  had  been  re- 
minded by  the  Chair  that  the  discussion  of 
slavery,  as  existing  within  the  States,  was  not 
in  order ;  when  he  was  desirous  to  reM  a  paper 
and  it  was  objected  to.  the  Chair  had  stopped 
him ;  but  the  objection  had  been  withdrawn,  and 
Mr.  Slade  had  been  suffered  to  proceed ;  he  was 
now  about  to  read  another  paper,  and  objection 
was  made  $  the  Chair  wool^  therefore,  take  the 
question  on  permitting  it  to  be  read." 

Many  members  rose,  all  addressing  the  Chafar 
at  the  same  time,  and  many  members  leaving 


the  hall,  and  a  general  scene  of  noise  and  con- 
fusion prevailing.  Mr.  Rhett  succeeded  in  rais- 
ing his  voice  above  the  roar  of  the  tempest  whidi 
raged  in  the  House,  and  invited  the  entire  dele- 
gations from  all  the  slave  States  to  retire  ftom 
the  hall  forthwith,  and  meet  in  the  committee 
room  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  Speaker 
again  essayed  to  calm  the  House,  and  again 
standing  up  in  his  place,  he  recapitulated  his 
attempts  to  preserve  order,  and  vindicated  the 
correctness  of  his  own  conduct — seemingly  im- 
pugned by  many.  "  What  his  personal  feelings 
were  on  the  subject  (he  was  fh>m  aslave  State), 
nught  easily  be  conjectured.  He  had  endeavor- 
ed to  enforce  the  rules.  Had  it  been  in  his  power 
to  restrain  the  discussion,  he  should  promptly 
have  exercised  the  power ;  but  it  was  not  Mr. 
Slade,  continuing,  sud  the  paper  which  he 
wished  to  read  was  of  the  continental  Congress 
of  1774.  The  Speaker  was  about  to  put  the 
question  on  leave,  when  Mr.  Cost  Johnson,  d 
Maryland,  inquired  whether  it  would  be  in 
order  to  fbroe  the  House  to  vote  that  the  mem- 
ber fVom  Vermont  be  not  permitted  to  proceed? 
The  Speaker  replied  it  would  not  ^en  Mr. 
James  J.  McKay,  of  North  Carolina — a  dear, 
coolheaded,  sagacious  man — ^interposed  the  oi>- 
jection  whidi  headed  Mr.  Slade.  There  was  a 
rule  of  the  House,  that  when  a  member  was 
called  to  order,  he  should  take  his  seat ;  and  if 
dedded  to  be  out  of  order,  he  should  not  be 
allowed  to  speak  again,  except  on  the  leave  of 
the  House.  Mr.  McKay  judged  this  to  be  a 
proper  occasion  for  the  enforcement  of  that  rule ; 
and  stood  up  and  said : 

<<  That  the  gentieman  had  been  pronounced 
out  of  order  in  discussing  slavery  in  the  States ; 
and  the  rule  declared  that  when  a  member  was 
so  pronounced  by  the  Chair,  he  should  take  his 
seat,  and  if  any  one  objected  to  his  proceeding 
again,  he  shomd  not  a>  so,  unless  by  leave  of 
the  House.  Mr.  McKay  did  now  object  to  the 
gentleman  from  Vermont  proceeding  any  fiff^ 
ther." 

Redoubled  noise  and  confusion  ensued — a 
crowd  of  members  rising  and  speaking  at  once 
— who  eventuaUy  yidded  to  the  resounding 
blows  of  the  Speaker's  hammer  upon  the  lid 
of  his  desk,  and  his  apparent  desire  to  read 
something  to  the  House,  as  he  held  a  book  (re- 
cognized to  be  that  of  the  rules)  in  his  hand. 
Obtaining  quiet,  so  as  to  enable  himself  to  be 
heard,  he  read  tiie  rule  referred  to  by  Mr.  Mo- 


152 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


Kay ;  and  said  that,  as  objection  had  now,  for 
the  first  time,  been  made  under  that  rule  to  the 
gentleman's  resumiog  his  speech,  the  Chair 
decided  that  he  could  not  do  so  without  the 
leave  of  the  House.  Mr.  Slade  attempted  to  go 
on :  the  Speaker  directed  him  to  take  his  seat 
until  the  question  of  leave  should  be  put 
Then,  Mr.  Slade,  still  keeping  on  his  feet,  asked 
leave  to  proceed  as  in  order,  saying  he  would 
not  discuss  slavery  in  Virginia.  On  that  ques- 
tion Mr.  Allen,  of  Vermont,  asked  the  yeas  and 
nays.  Mr.  Bencher,  of  North  Carolina,  moved 
an  adjournment.  Mr.  Adams,  and  many  others, 
demanded  the  yeas  and  nays  on  this  motion, 
which  were  ordered,  and  resulted  in  106  yeas, 
and  63  nays — some  fifty  or  sixty  members  hav- 
ing withdrawn.  This  opposition  to  adjourn- 
ment was  one  of  the  worst  features  of  that  un- 
happy day's  work — the  only  efiect  of  keeping 
the  House  together  being  to  increase  irritation, 
and  multiply  the  chances  for  an  outbreak. 
From  the  beginning  Southern  members  had 
been  in  fiivor  of  it,  and  essayed  to  accomplish  it, 
but  were  prevented  by  the  tenacity  with  which 
Mr.  Slade  kept  possession  of  the  floor:  and 
now,  at  last,  when  it  was  time  to  a<youm 
any  way — ^when  the  House  was  in  a  condition 
in  whidi  no  good  could  be  expected,  and  great 
harm  might  be  apprehended,  there  were  sixty- 
three  members— being  nearly  one-third  of  the 
House — ^willing  to  continue  it  in  session.  They 


^Messrs.  Adams,  Alexander,  H.  Allen,  J.  W. 
Allen,  -^cri^,  Bell,  Biddle,  Bond,  Borden, 
Briggs.  Wm.  B.  Calhoun,  Cof&n,  Corwin,  Cran- 
ston, Curtis,  Cushing,  Darlington,  Davies,  Dunn, 
Evans,  Everett  Ewing  I.  Fletcher,  Fillmore, 
Qoode^  Grennell,  Haley,  Hall,  Hastings,  Henry, 
Herod,  Hoffman,  Lincoln,  Marvin,  S.  Mason, 
Maxwell  McKennan,  Milligan,  M.  Morris,  C. 
Moiris,  Naylor.  Noyes,  Ogle,  Parmenter,  Patter^ 
son,  Peck,  Phillips,  Potts.  Potter,  Rariden,  Ran- 
dolph, Reed,  Ridgway,  RusseL  Shefifer,  Sibley, 
Slade,  Stratton,  TUlinghast,  Toland,  A.  S.  White, 
J.  White,  K  Whittlesey— 63." 

The  House  then  stood  adjourned ;  and  as  the 
adjournment  was  being  pronounced,  Mr.  Camp- 
bell of  South  Carolina,  stood  up  on  a  diair,  and 
calling  for  the  attention  of  members,  said : 

**  He  had  been  appointed,  as  one  of  the  Southern 
delegation,  to  announce  that  all  those  gentlemen 
who  represented  slaveholding  States,  were  in- 
vited to  attend  the  meeting  now  being  held  in 
the  District  committee  room.'' 


Members  from  the  slave-holding  States  had 
repaired  in  large  numbers  to  the  room  in  the 
basement,  where  they  were  invited  to  meet. 
Various  passions  agitated  them — some  violent 
Extreme  propositions  were  suggested,  of  which 
Mr.  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  letter  to  his 
constituents,  gave  a  full  account  of  his  own — 
thus: 

^'  In  a  private  and  friendly  letter  to  tlie  editor 
of  the  Charleston  Mercury  ^imongst  other  events 
accompanying  the  memorable  secession  of  the 
Southern  members  from  the  hall  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  I  stated  to  him,  that  I  had 
prepared  two  resolutions,  drawn  as  amendments 
to  the  motion  of  the  member  from  Vermont, 
whilst  he  was  discussing  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  the  South, '  declaring,  that  the  con- 
stitution having  failed  to  protect  the  South  in 
the  peaceable  possession  and  enjoyment  of  their 
rights  and  peculiar  institutions,  it  was  expedioit 
that  the  Union  should  be  dissolved ;  and  the 
other,  appointing  a  committee  of  two  members 
from  each  State,  to  report  upon  the  best  means 
of  peaceably  dissolving  it'  They  were  intended 
as  amendments  to  a  motion,  to  refer  with  in- 
structions to  report  a  bill,  abolishing  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  I  expected  them  to 
share  the  &te,  which  inevitably  awaited  the 
original  motion,  so  soon  as  the  floor  could  have 
been  obtained,  viz.,  to  be  laid  upon  the  table. 
My  design  in  presenting  them,  was,  to  place 
before  Congress  and  the  people,  what,  in  my 
opinion,  was  the  true  issue  upon  this  great  and 
vital  question ;  and  to  point  out  the  course  cf 
policy  by  whidi  it  should  be  met  by  the  South- 
ern States." 

But  extreme  counsels  did  not  prevaiL  There 
were  members  present,  who  well  considered 
that,  although  the  provocation  was  great,  aul 
the  number  voting  for  such  a  firebrand  motion 
was  deplorably  large,  yet  it  was  but  little  more 
than  the  one-fourth  of  the  House,  and  decidedly 
less  than  one  half  of  the  members  from  the  free 
States :  so  that,  even  if  left  to  the  free  State 
vote  alone,  the  motion  would  have  been  rejected. 
But  the  motion  itself,  and  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  supported,  was  most  reprehensible— 
necessarily  -leading  to  disorder  in  the  House, 
the  destruction  of  its  harmony  and  c^)acity  for 
useful  legislation,  tending  to  a  sectional  segre- 
gation of  the  members,  the  alienation  of  feeling 
between  the  North  and  the  South ;  and  alarm 
to  all  the  slaveholding  States.  The  evil  requind 
a  remedy,  but  not  the  remedy  of  breaking  up 
the  Union ;  but  one  which  might  prevent  the 
like  in  future,  while  administering  a  rebuke 
upon  the  past    That  remedy  was  found  in 


ASJSSO  1888.    MARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  PRESIDENT. 


158 


adoptiiv  a  propoatkm  to  be  offered  to  the 
House,  whkii,  if  agreed  to^  would  cloae  the 
door  against  any  discussion  upon  abolition  peti- 
tions in  fntoie,  and  assimilate  the  proceedings 
of  the  Honse^  in  that  partkolar,  to  those  of 
the  Senata  This  proposition  was  pat  into  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Patton,  of  Virginia,  to  be  offered 
as  an  amendment  to  the  roles  at  the  opening  of 
the  Hoose  the  next  morning.    It  was  in  these 


*^  Resolved^  That  all  petitions,  memorials,  and 
papers,  touching  the  abolition  of  slavery  or  the 
bayin£^  selling,  or  transferring  of  slaves,  in  any 
State,  District,  or  Territory,  of  the  United  States, 
be  laid  on  the  table,  witnout  being  debated, 
printed,  read,  or  referred,  and  that  no  farther 
action  whatever  shall  be  nad  thereon." 

Aooordii^^ly,  at  the  opening  of  the  Hoose,  Mr. 
Patton  asked  leave  to  submit  the  resolution— 
which  was  read  for  information.  Mr.  Adams 
objected,  to  the  grant  of  leave,  Mr.  Patton  then 
moved  a  sospension  of  the  rules— which  motion 
required  two-thirds  to  sustain  it;  and,  unless 
obtained,  this  salutary  remedy  for  an  alarming 
evil  (which  was  already  in  force  in  the  Senate) 
could  not  be  offered.  It  was  a  test  motion,  and 
on  which  the  oiq[»onents  of  abolition  agitation  in 
the  House  required  all  their  strength:  for 
unless  two  to  one,  they  were  defeated.  Happily 
the  two  to  one  were  ready,  and  on  taking  the 
yeas  and  nays,  demanded  by  an  abolition  member 
(to  ke^  his  friends  to  the  track,  and  to  hold  the 
free  State  anti-abolitionists  to  their  responsi- 
bility at  home),  the  result  stood  135  yeas  to  60 
nays — ^the  fiill  two-thirds,  and  fifteen  over.  The 
yeas  on  this  important  motion,  were : 

Messrs.  Hugh  J.  Anderson,  John  T.  An- 
drews, Charles  G.  Atherton,  William  Beatty, 
Andrew  Beime,  John  Bell,  Bennet  Bicknell, 
Hichard  Biddle,  Samuel  Birdsall,  Ratliff  Boon, 
James  YT.  Bouldin,  John  0.  Brodhead.  Isaac  H. 
Bronson,  Andrew  D.  W.  Brnyn,  Anarew  Bu- 
chanan, John  Calhoun,  C.  C.  Cambreleng:  Wm. 

B.  Campbell,  John  Campbell,  Timothy  J.  Cai^ 
ter,  Wm.  B.  Carter,  Zadok  Casey,  Jolm  Cham- 
bers, John  Chaney,  Reuben  Chapman,  Richard 
Cheatham,  Jonathan  Cilley,  John  F.  H.  Clai- 
borne, Jesse  F.  Cleaveland,  Wm.  K.  Clowney, 
Walter  Coles,  Thomas  Corwin.  Robert  Craig, 
John  W.  Crocket.  Samuel  Cushman,  Edmund 
Deberry,  John  I.  De  QraflJ  John  Dennis,  George 

C.  Dromgode,  John  Edwards,  James  Farring- 
ton,  John  Fairfield,  Jacob  Fry,  jr.,  James  Gar- 
lancL  James  Graham,  Seaton  Grantland,  Abr'm 
P.  Grant,  William  J.  Graves,  Robert  H.  Ham-  { 


mond,  Thomas  L.  Hamer,  James  Harian,  Albert 
G.  Harrison,  Richard  Hawes,  Micajah  T.  Haw- 
kins^harles  E.  Harnes,  Hopkins  Holse^,  Or- 
rin  Holt,  George  W.  Uopkins,  Bei\]amin  C. 
Howard,  Edwani  B.  Hnbley,  Jabez  Jackson, 
Joseph  Johnson,  Wm.  Cost  JohnsoiL  John  W. 
Jones,  (}ouvemeur  Kembk^  Daniel  Kilgore, 
John  Klingensmith,  jr^  Joab  Lawler,  Hugh  S. 
Legare,  Henry  Logan.  Francis  S.  Lyon,  Francis 
Midlory,  James  M.  Mason,  Joshua  L.  Martin, 
Abram'P.  Maury,  Wm.  L.  May,  James  J.  Mo* 
Kay,  Robert  McCleUan,  Abraham  McClelland, 
Charles  McClure,  Isaac  McRim,  Richard  H. 
Menefee,  Charles  F.  Mercer,  Wm.  Mont|2:omei7, 
Ely  Moore,  Wm.  S.  Morgan,  Samuel  W.  Mor- 
ris, Henry  A.  Muhlenberg,  John  L.  Murray,' 
Wm.  H.  Noble,  John  Palmer^masa  J.  Parker, 
John  M.  Patton,  Lemuel  Paynter,  Isaac  S. 
Pennybacker,  David  Petrikin,  Lancelot  Phelps, 
Arnold  Plumer,  Zadock  Pratt,  John  H.  Pren- 
tiss, Luther  Reily,  Abraham  Rancher,  John 
Robertson,  Samuel  T.  Sawyer,  Augustine  H. 
Shepperd,  Charles  Shepara,  El^nezer  J. 
ShieldBLMatthias  Sheplor,  Francis  0.  J.  Smith, 
Adam  W.  Snyder,  Wm.  W.  Southeate,  James 
B.  Spencer,  Edward  Stanly,  Archibald  Stuart, 
Wm.  Stone,  John  Taliaferro,  Wm.  Taylor,  Oba- 
diah  Titus,  Isaac  Toncey,  Hopkins  L.  Tumey, 
Joseph  R.  Underwood,  Henry  Vail,  David  D. 
Wagen^  Taylor  Webster,  Joseph  Weeks,  Al- 
bert S.  W  bite,  John  White,  Thomas  T.  Whittle- 
sey, Lewis  Williams,  Sherrod'  Williams,  Jared 
W.  Williams,  Joseph  L.  Williams,  Christ'r  H. 
Williams,  Henry  A.  Wise,  Archibald  YelL 

The  nays  were : 

Messrs.  John  Qoincy  Adams,  James  Alex- 
ander, jr.,  Heman  Allen,  John  W.  Allen,  J. 
Banker  ^crigg,  Wm.  Key  Bond,  Nathaniel  B. 
Borden,  George  N.  Briggs,  Wm.  B.  Calhoun, 
Charles  D.  Coffin,  Robert  B.  Cranston,  Caleb 
Cushing,  Edward  Dariington,  Thomas  Davee, 
Edward  Davies,  Alexander  Duncan,  George  H. 
Dunn,  George  Evans,  Horace  Everett,  John 
Ewing,  Isaac  Fletcher,  Millard  Filmore,  Henry 
A.  Foster,  Patrick  G.  Groode,  George  Grennell, 
jr.,  Elisha  Hal^,  Hiland  Hall,  Alexander  Har- 
per, Wm.  S.  Hastings,  Thomas  Henry:  Wm. 
Herod,  Samuel  Ingham^  Levi  Lincoln,  Richard 
P.  Marvin,  Samson  Mason,  John  P.  B.  Maxwell, 
Thos.  M.  T.  McKennan,  Mathias  Morris,  Cal- 
vary Morris,  Charles  Naylor,  Joseph  C.  Noyes, 
Charles  Ogle.  Wm.  Parmenter,  Wm.  Patterson. 
Luther  C.  Peck,  Stephen  C.  Phillimt,  David 
Potts,  jr.,  James  Rariden,  Joseph  F.  Randolph, 
John  Reed,  Joseph  Ridgway.  David  Russell, 
Daniel  Sheffer,  Marie  H.  Sibley,  Wm.  Slade^ 
Charles  C.  Strattcm,  Joseph  L.  Tillinghast, 
George  W.  Tohmd,  Elisha  Whittlesey,  Thomas 
Jones  Yorke. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  important  votes 
ever  delivered  in  the  House.  Upon  its  issue  de- 
pended the  quiet  of  the  House  on  one  hand,  or 


154 


THmTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


on  the  other,  the  renewal,  and  perpetuation  of  the 
scenes  of  the  day  before — ending  in  breaking  up 
all  deliberation,  and  all  national  legislation.  It 
was  successful,  and  that  critical  step  being  safely 
over,  the  passage  of  the  resolution  was  secured — 
the  free  State  friendly  vote  being  itself  sufficient 
to  carry  it :  but,  although  the  passage  of  the  reso- 
lution was  secured,  yet  resistance  to  it  continued. 
Mr.  Patton  rose  to  recommend  his  resolution  as 
a  peace  offering,  and  to  prevent  further  agitation 
by  demanding  the  previous  question.    He  said : 

^  He  had  offered  this  resolution  in  the  spirit 
of  peace  and  harmony.  It  involves  (said  Mr. 
P.),  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  and  so  far  as  con- 
cerns some  portion  of  the  representatives  of  the 
slaveholding  States,  a  concession ;  a  concession 
which  we  make  for  the  sake  of  peace,  harmony, 
and  union.  We  offer  it  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  allay,  not  exasperate  excitement ;  we  desire 
to  extinguish,  not  to  kindle  a  flame  in  the  coun- 
try. In  that  spirit,  sir,  without  saying  one 
word  in  the  way  of  discussion ;  without  giving 
utterance  to  any  of  those  emotions  which  swell 
in  my  bosom  at  the  recollection  of  what  took 
place  here  vesterday,  I  shall  do  what  I  have 
neveryet  done  since  I  have  been  a  member  of 
this  House,  and  which  I  have  very  rarely  sus- 
tained, when  done  by  others :  I  move  the  pre- 
vious question." 

Then  followed  a  scene  of  disorder,  which  thus 
appears  in  the  Register  of  Debates : 

^  Mr.  Adams  rose  and  said :  Mr.  Speaker,  the 
gentleman  precedes  his  resolution — rLoud  cries 
of '  Order !  order ! '  from  all  parts  of  the  hall.) 
Mr.  A.  He  preceded  it  with  remarks — (*  Order ! 
order!') 

^  The  Chair  reminded  the  gentleman  that  it 
was  out  of  order  to  address  the  House  after  the 
demand  for  the  previous  question. 

^  Mr.  Adams.  I  ask  the  House — (continued 
cries  of  *  Order ! '  which  completely  drowned  the 
honorable  member's  voice.)" 

Order  having  been  restored,  the  next  question 
was — ''Is  the  demand  for  the  previous  question 
seconded  ?  " — ^which  seconding  would  consist  of 
a  majority  of  the  whole  House— which,  on  a 
division,  quickly  showed  itself.  Then  came  the 
further  question — *'  Shall  the  main  question  be 
now  put  7  "—on  which  the  yeas  and  nays  were 
demanded,  and  taken ;  and  ended  in  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  vote  of  the  same  63  against  it.  The 
main  question  was  then  put,  and  carried ;  but 
again,  on  yeas  and  nays,  to  hold  free  State  mem- 
bers to  their  responsibility ;  showing  the  same 
63  in  the  negative^  with  a  few  additional  votes 


from  free  State  members,  who,  having  staked 
themselves  on  the  vital  point  of  suspending  the 
rules,  saw  no  use  in  giving  themselves  fnither 
trouble  at  home,  by  giving  an  unnecessary  vote 
in  &vor  of  stifling  abolition  debate.  In  this 
way,  the  ranks  of  the  63  were  increased  to  74 
Thus  was  stifled,  and  in  future  prevented  in 
the  House,  the  inflammatory  debates  on  these 
disturbing  petitions.  It  was  the  great  sessicm 
of  their  presentation — being  offered  by  hun- 
dreds, and  signed  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
persons — ^many  of  them  women,  who  forgot  their 
sex  and  their  duties,  to  mingle  in  8u<^  inflam- 
matory work ;  some  of  them  clergymen,  who 
forgot  their  mission  of  peace,  to  stir  up  8tn& 
among  those  who  should  be  brethren.  Of  the 
pertinacious  63,  who  backed  Mr.  Slade  through- 
out, the  most  notable  were  Mr.  Adams,  wbo 
had  been  President  of  the  United  States— Mr. 
Fillmore,  who  became  so— and  Mr.  Caleb  Cusb- 
ing,  who  eventually  became  as  ready  to  aboli^ 
all  impediments  to  the  general  diffusion  at 
slavery,  as  he  then  was  to  abolish  slsTery  iteelf 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  was  a  porten- 
tous contest.  The  motion  of  Mr.  Slade  vrss,  not 
for  an  inquiry  into  the  expediency  of  abolishiif 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  (a  moti<^ 
in  itself  sufficiently  inflammatory),  but  to  ^ 
the  command  of  the  House  to  bring  in  a  bill  fer 
that  purpose — ^which  would  be  a  decisioin  of  tk 
question.  His  motion  fjuled.  The  storm  sab- 
sided  ;  and  very  few  of  the  free  State  memb^ 
who  had  staked  themselves  on  the  issue,  lost  inj 
thing  among  their  constituents  for  the  devotica 
which  they  had  shown  to  the  Union. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

ABOLITIONISTS  CLASSIFIED  BT  MIL  CLAY:  XJh- 
TBAS  DENOUNCED:  BLAYEBT  AGITATttGs 
NOBTH  AND  SOUTH  EQUALLY  DElNOUNCED 
AS  DANGEBOUS  TO  THE  UNION. 

'^  It  is  well  known  to  the  Senate,  said  Mr.  Claj. 
that  I  have  thought  that  the  most  judidoos 
course  with  abolition  petitions  has  not  been  d 
late  pursued  by  Congress.  I  have  beliered  thit 
it  would  have  been  wisest  to  have  reoerved  and 
referred  them,  without  opposition,  and  to  hxrt 
reported  against  their  object  in  a  calm  and  di»- 
passionate  and   aigumeatative  appeal   to  the 


AimO  18S8.    KABTIN  YAK  6UREN,  PRESIDENT. 


155 


good  sense  of  the  whole  commnm^.  It  has 
been  supposed,  however,  b^  a  mijoritj  oi  Con- 
gress that  it  was  most  expedient  either  not  to 
Teoeire  the  petitMMDS  at  ul,  or,  if  formallj  re- 
oeiTed,  not  to  act  definitively  upon  them. 
There  is  no  suhstantial  difference  between  these 
opposite  (pinions,  since  both  look  to  an  abso- 
lute rejection  of  the  pnjsr  of  the  petitioners. 
But  there  is  a  great  difference  in  the  form  of 
•proceeding;  and.  Mr.  President,  some  experi- 
ence in  the  conduct  of  human  aflOurs  has  taught 
me  to  behere  that  a  neglect  to  observe  estab- 
lished forms  is  <^ten  attended  with  more  mis- 
chievous consequences  than  the  infliction  of  a 
positive  injury.  We  all  know  that,  even  in 
private  life,  a  violation  of  the  existing  usages 
and  ceremonies  of  society  cannot  take  place 
without  serious  prejndioe.  I  fear,  sir,  that  the 
abolitionists  have  acquired  a  considerable  ^pa- 
rent force  by  blending  with  the  object  which 
they  have  in  view  a  collateral  and  totally  dif- 
ferent question  arising  out  of  an  alleged  viola- 
tion of  the  right  of  petition.  I  know  full  well, 
and  take  great  pleasure  in  testifying,  that 
nothing  was  remoter  from  the  intention  of  the 
majori^  of  the  Senate,  from  which  I  differed, 
than  to  violate  the  right  of  petition  in  any  case 
in  which,  according  to  its  judgment,  that  right 
could  be  constitutionally  exercised,  or  where 
the  object  of  the  petition  could  be  safely  or 
properly  granted.  StilL  it  must  be  owned  that 
the  abolitionists  have  seized  hold  of  the  fact  of 
the  treatment  which  their  petitions  have  re- 
ceived in  Congress,  and  made  iigurious  impres- 
sions upon  the  minds  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
community.  This,  I  think,  might  have  been 
avoided  by  the  course  whidi  I  should  have  been 
glad  to  have  seen  pursued. 

^  And  I  desire  now,  Mr.  President  to  advert 
to  some  of  those  topics  which  I  tnink  might 
have  been  useftiUy  embodied  in  a  report  by  a 
committee  of  the  Senate,  and  which,  I  am  per- 
soaded,  would  have  diecked  the  progress,  if  it 
had  not  altogether  arrested  the  efforts  of  aboli- 
tion. I  am  sensible,  sir,  that  this  work  would 
have  been  accomplisned  with  much  greater  .abil- 
ity, and  with  much  happier  effect,  under  the 
auspices  of  a  conmiittee,  tnan  it  can  be  by  me. 
But,  anxious  as  I  always  am  to  contribute 
whatever  is  in  my  power  to  the  harmony,  con- 
eord,  and  happiness  of  this  great  people,  I  feel 
myself  irresistibly  impelled  to  do  whatever  is 
in  my  power,  incompetent  as  I  feel  myself  to 
bCj  to  dissuade  the  public  from  continuing  to 
agitate  a  subject  fraught  with  the  most  direfol 
consequences. 

^  There  are  three  classes  of  persons  opposed, 
or  ^>parently  opposed,  to  the  continued  exist- 
ence of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  The  first 
are  those  who,  from  sentiments  of  philanthropy 
and  humanity,  are  conscientiously  opposed  to 
the  existence  of  slavery,  but  who  are  no  less 
opposed,  at  the  same  time,  to  any  disturbance 
of  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  Union,  or 
the  infringement  of  the  powers  of  the  States 


composing  the  confederacy.  In  this  class  may 
be  comprehended  that  peaceful  and  exemplary 
society  of  'Friends'  one  of  whose  established 
maxims  is,  an  abhoirence  of  war  in  all  its 
forma,  and  the  cultivation  of  peace  and  good- 
will amongst  mankind.  The  next  class  consisti 
of  apparent  abolitionists—that  is,  those  who^ 
having  been  persuaded  that  the  right  of  peti- 
tion has  been  violated  by  Congress,  co-operate 
with  the  abolitionists  ibr  the  sole  purpose  of  as- 
serting and  vindicating  that  right  And  the 
third  class  are  the  real  ultra-abolitionists,  who 
are  resolved  to  persevere  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
object  at  all  ha»urds,  and  without  regard  to  any 
consequences,  however  calamitous  they  may  be. 
With  them  the  rights  of  property  are  nothing ; 
the  deficiency  of  tLe  powers  of  the  general  gov- 
erment  is  nothing;  the  acknowledged  and  in- 
contestable powers  of  the  States  are  nothing ; 
civil  war,  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  the 
overthrow  of  a  government  in  which  are  con- 
centrated the  ^dest  hopes  of  the  civilized 
world,  are  nothing.  A  single  idea  has  teken 
possession  of  their  minds,  and  onward  they  pur- 
sue it,  overkwking  all  barriers,  reckless  and  re- 
gardless of  all  consequences.  With  this  class, 
the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and  in  the  territory  of  Flori- 
da, the  prohibition  of  the  removal  of  slaves  from 
State  to  Stete,  and  the  refusal  to  admit  any  new 
State,  comprising  within  ite  limits  the  institu^ 
tion  of  domestic  slavery,  are  but  so  many  means 
conducing  to  tiie  accomplishment  of  the  ulti- 
mate but  perilous  end  at  which  they  avowedly 
and  boldly  aim ;  are  but  so  many  short  stages 
in  the  long  and  bloodv  road  to  the  distant  goal 
at  which  they  would  finally  arrive.  Their  pur- 
pose m  abolition,  universal  abolition,  peaceably 
if  it  can,  forcibly  if  it  must  Their  object  is  no 
longer  concealed  by  the  thinnest  veil;  it  is 
avowed  and  proclaimed.  Utterly  destitute  of 
constitotional  or  other  rightful  power,  living 
in  totally  distinct  communities,  as  alien  to  the 
communities  in  which  the  sulnect  on  which 
they  would  operate  resides,  so  &r  as  concerns 

Eolitical  power  over  that  subject,  as  if  they 
ved  in  Africa  or  Asia,  they  nevertheless  pro- 
mulgate to  the  world  their  purpose  to  be  to 
manumit  forthwith,  and  without  compensation, 
and  without  moral  preparation,  three  millions 
of  negro  slaves,  under  jurisdictions  altogether 
separated  from  those  under  which  they  live. 

^I  have  said  that  immediate  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  in  the 
territory  of  Florida,  and  the  exclusion  of  new 
States,  were  only  means  towards  tiie  attainment 
of  a  much  more  important  end.  Unfortunately, 
they  are  not  the  only  means.  Another,  ana 
much  more  lamentable  one  is  that  which  this 
dass  is  endeavoring  to  employ,  of  arraying  one 
portion  against  another  portion  of  the  Union. 
With  that  view,  in  all  their  leading  prints  and 
publications,  the  alleged  horrors  of  slavery  are 
depicted  in  the  most  glowing  and  exaggerated 
colors,  to  excite  the  imaginations  and  stimulate 


156 


THIRTY  YEARS'  VIEW. 


the  rage  of  the  people  in  the  free  States  against 
the  people  in  the  slaye  States.  The  slaveholder 
is  held  up  and  represented  as  the  most  atrocious 
of  human  heings.  Adyertisements  of  fugitive 
slaves  to  be  sold  are  carefully  collected  and 
blazoned  forth,  to  infuse  a  spirit  of  detestation 
and  hatred  against  one  entire  and  the  largest 
section  of  the  Union.  And  like  a  notorious 
af^tator  upon  another  theatre  (Mr.  Daniel 
O'Connell),  they  would  hunt  down  and  pro* 
scribe  from  the  pale  of  civilized  society  the  in- 
habitants of  that  entire  section.  Allow  me,  Mr. 
President,  to  say,  that  whilst  I  reoo^ize  in  the 
justly  wounded  feelings  of  the  Minister  of  the 
United  States  at  the  court  of  St  James  much  to 
excuse  the  notice  which  he  was  provoked  to 
take  of  that  agitator,  in  my  humble  opinion,  he 
would  better  have  consulted  the  dignity  of  his 
station  and  of  his  country  in  treating  lum  with 
contemptuous  sUenoe.  That  agitator  would  ex- 
clude us  from  European  sodety — ^he  who  himself 
can  only  obtain  a  contraband  admission^  and  is  re- 
ceived with  scomfid  repugnance  into  it !  If  he 
be  no  more  desirous  of  our  society  than  we  are 
of  his,  he  may  rest  assured  that  a  state  of  eternal 
non-intercourse  will  exist  between  us.  Yes.  sir, 
I  think  the  American  Minister  would  have  oest 
pursued  the  dictates  of  true  dignity  by  reg^ard- 
mg  the  language  of  that  member  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons  as  the  malignant  ravings  of 
the  plunderer  of  his  own  country,  and  the  libeller 
of  a  foreign  and  kindred  people. 

^  But  me  means  to  which  I  have  already  ad- 
verted are  not  the  only  ones  which  this  third 
class  of  ultra- Abolitionists  are  employing  to 
effect  their  ultimate  end.  They  began  their 
operations  by  professing  to  employ  only  per- 
suasive means  in  appealing  to  the  humanity, 
and  enlightening  the  understandings,  of  the 
slavehol£ng  portion  of  the  Union.  If  there 
were  some  kindness  in  this  avowed  motive,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  there  was  rather  a 
presumptuous  display  also  of  an  assumed  supe- 
riority m  intelli^ce  and  knowledge.  For  some 
time  they  contmuod  to  make  these  appeals  to 
our  duty  and  our  interest;  but  impatient  with 
the  slow  influence  of  their  logic  upon  our  stupid 
minds,  they  recently  resolved  to  change  their 
system  of  action.  To  the  agency  of  their  powers 
of  persuasioiL  they  now  propose  to  substitute 
the  powers  or  the  ballot  box ;  and  he  must  be 
blind  to  what  is  passmg  before  us,  who  does  not 
perceive  that  the  inevitable  tendency  of  their 
proceedings  is,  if  these  should  be  found  insuflEl- 
cient,  to  invoke,  finally,  the  more  potent  powers 
of  the  bayonet 

"  Mr.  President  it  is  at  this  alarming  stage  of 
the  proceedings  or  the  ultr»-Abolitionist8  that  I 
wonld  seriously  invite  every  consideTate  man  in 
the  country  solemnlv  to  pause,  and  deliberately 
to  reflect,  not  merely  on  our  existing  posture, 
bat  upon  that  dreadful  precipice  down  which 
they  would  hurry  us.  It  is  because  these  ultr»- 
Abolitiouists  have  ceased  to  employ  the  instru- 
ments of  reason  and  persuasioii,  have  made  their 


cause  political,  and  have  appealed  to  tlie  ballot 
box,  that  I  am  induced,  upon  this  occasioii,  to 
address  you. 

"  There  have  been  three  epodis  in  the  history 
of  our  country  at  which  the  spirit  of  abolition 
displayed  itsel£  The  first  was  immediately 
after  the  formation  of  the  present  federal  gov- 
ernment When  the  constitution  was  about 
going  into  operation,  its  powers  were  not  wdl 
understood  by  the  community  at  large,  and  re- 
mained to  be  accurately  interpreted  and  defined. 
At  that  period  numerous  abolition  societies 
were  formed,  comprising  not  merely  the  Society 
of  Friends,  but  many  other  good  men.  Peti- 
tions were  presented  to  Congress,  praying  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  Th«y  were  reoeived 
without  serious  opposition,  referred,  and  report- 
ed upon  by  a  committee.  The  report  stated 
that  the  general  government  had  no  power  to 
abolish  slavery  as  it  existed  in  the  aevoal 
States,  and  that  these  States  themselyes  bad  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  over  the  subject  The  re- 
port was  generally  acquiesced  in,  and  8atisfiu^- 
tion  and  tranquillity  ensued ;  the  abolitioo 
societies  thereafter  limiting  their  exertions,  in 
respect  to  the  black  population,  to  offices  of 
humanity  within  the  scope  of  existing  laws. 

"  The  next  period  when  the  subject  of  slaverj 
and  abolition,  incidentally,  was  brought  into 
notice  and  discussion,  was  oh  the  memorable 
occasion  of  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri into  the  Union.  The  struggle  was  loo^ 
strenuous,  and  fearful.  It  is  too  recent  to  make 
it  necessary  to  do  more  than  merely  advert  to 
it,  and  to  say,  that  it  was  finally  compoeed  by 
one  of  those  compromises  characteristic  of  our 
institutions,  and  of  which  the  constitution  itsdf 
is  the  most  signal  instance. 

*'  The  third  is  that  in  which  we  now  find  our- 
selves, and  to  which  various  causes  haTe  con- 
tributed. The  principal  one,  perhaps,  is  Bntisii 
emancipation  in  the  islands  ad|acent  to  our  con- 
tinent Confounding  the  totally  different  cases 
of  the  powers  of  the  British  Parliament  and 
those  of  our  Congress,  and  the  totally  difieient 
conditions  of  the  slaves  in  the  British  West 
India  Islands  and  the  slaves  in  the  sovereign 
and  hidependent  States  of  this  confederacy, 
superficial  men  have  inferred  from  the  undecid- 
ed British  experiment  the  practicability  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  these  States.  All  these 
are  diflferent  The  powers  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment are  unlimited,  and  often  described  to  be 
omnipotent  The  powers  of  the  American  Con- 
gress, on  the  contrary,  are  few,  cautiously  limit- 
ed, scrupulously  excluding  all  that  are  not 
granted,  and  above  all,  carefully  and  absolutely 
excluding  all  power  over  the  existence  or  con- 
tinuance of  slavery  in  the  several  States.  The 
slaves,  too,  upon  which  British  legislation  ope- 
rated, were  not  in  the  bosom  of  the  kingdooB, 
but  in  remote  and  feeble  colonies,  having  no 
voice  in  Parliament.  The  West  India  slave- 
holder was  neither  representative,  or  represented 
in  that  Parliament  And  while  I  most  fervently 


ANKO  I8S».    MABTIN  YAS  BUSEV,  PBEBIDBirr. 


167 


wish  complete  soooeBS  to  the  Britiflh  ezperiment 
of  the  Weet  Indis  emandpatioii,  I  confess  that 
I  have  feaifttl  forebodings  of  a  disastrous  ter- 
mination. Whateyer  it  may  be,  I  think  it  most 
be  admitted  that  if  the  British  Parliament 
treated  the  West  India  slaves  as  freemen,  it  also 
treated  the  West  India  freemen  as  slaves.  If 
instead  of  these  slaves  being  separated  bj  a 
wide  ocean  from  the  parent  country,  three  or 
four  millions  of  African  n^gro  slaves  had  been 
dispersed  over  Dnghmd,  ^tland,  Wales  and 
Ireland,  and  thdr  owners  had  been  members  of 
the  British  Parliament — a  case  which  would 
have  presented  some  analogy  to  our  own  coun- 
try—does any  one  believe  that  it  would  have 
been  expedient  or  practical  to  have  emancipated 
them,  leaving  them  to  remain,  with  all  their 
embittered  feelings,  in  the  United  kingdom, 
boundless  as  the  powers  of  the  British  govern- 
ment are? 

^*  Other  causes  have  conspired  with  the  Brit- 
ish example  to  produce  the  existing  excitement 
from  abolition.  I  say  it  with  profound  regret, 
and  with  no  intention  to  occasion  irritation 
here  or  elsewhere,  that  there  are  persons  in 
both  parts  of  the  Union  who  have  sought  to 
mingle  abolition  with  politics,  and  to  array  one 
portion  of  the  Union  against  the  other.  It  is 
the  misfortune  of  free  countries  that,  in  high 
party  times,  a  disposition  too  often  prevuls  to 
seize  hold  of  every  thing  which  can  strengthen 
the  one  side  or  w^en  the  other.  Prior  to  the 
late  election  of  the  present  President  of  the 
United  States,  he  was  charged  with  being  an 
abolitionist,  and  abolition  designs  were  imputed 
to  many  of  his  supporters.  Much  as  I  was  op- 
posed to  his  election,  and  am  to  his  administra- 
tion, I  neither  shared  in  making  or  believing 
the  truth  of  the  charge.  He  was  scarcely  in- 
stalled in  office  before  the  same  charge  was  di- 
rected against  those  who  opposed  his  election. 

"  It  is  not  tnie — ^I  rejoice  that  it  is  not  true 
— ^that  either  of  the  two  great  parties  in  this 
country  has  any  design  or  aim  at  aboUtion.  I 
should  deeply  lament  if  it  were  true.  I  should 
consider,  if  it  were  true,  that  the  danger  to  the 
stability  of  our  system  would  be  infinitely 
greater  than  any  which  does,  I  hope,  actually 
exist.  Whilst  neither  party  can  be,  I  think, 
justly  accused  of  any  abolition  tendency  or  pur- 
pose^ both  have  profited,  and  both  been  injured, 
m  particular  localities,  by  the  accession  or  ab- 
straction of  abolition  support  If  the  account 
were  fiurly  stated,  I  believe  the  party  to  which 
I  am  opposed  has  profited  much  more,  and  been 
injured  much  less,  than  that  to  which  I  belong. 
But  I  am  fitr,  for  that  reason,  from  being  dis- 
posed to  accuse  our  adversaries  of  abolitionism." 


OHAPTEB   XXXVIII. 

BANK  OF  THB  tTNITBD  STATES :  BESIONATION 
OF  MB.  BIDDLE:  FINAL  SUSPENSION. 

On  the  first  of  January  of  this  year  this  Bank 
made  an  exposition  of  its  affairs  to  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  of  Pennsylvania^  as  required  by 
its  charter,  in  which  its  assets  aggregated 
$66,180,396;  and  its  liabilities  aggregated 
$33,180,855 :  the  exposition  being  verified  by 
the  Qsual  oaths  required  on  such  occasious. 

On  the  30th  of  March  followmg  Mr.  Biddle 
resigned  his  place  as  president  of  the  Bank, 
giving  as  a  reason  for  it  that,  ^the  affain  of 
the  ifutUtaion  itere  in  a  state  of  great  pro^ 
peritpj  and  no  longer  needed  his  eervicesJ^ 

On  the  same  day  the  board  of  directors  in  ac- 
cepting the  resignation,  passed  a  resolve  declar- 
ing that  the  President  Biddle  had  left  the  insti- 
tution *^pro9perou8  in  all  its  relations^  strong 
in  its  ability  to  promote  the  interest  of  the 
community  J  cordial  vith  other  banks^  and  se- 
cure in  the  esteem  and  respect  of  all  connected 
with  it  at  home  or  abroad,^* 

On  the  9th  of  October  the  Bank  dosed  her 
doors  upon  her  creditors,  under  the  mild  name 
of  suspension— never  to  open  them  agun. 

In  the  month  of  April  preceding,  when  leav- 
ing Washington  to  return  to  Missouri,  I  told  the 
President  there  would  be  another  suspension, 
headed  by  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  be- 
fore we  met  again :  at  my  return  in  November 
it  was  his  first  expression  to  remind  me  of  that 
conversation ;  and  to  say  it  was  the  second  time 
I  had  foreseen  these  suspensions,  and  warned 
him  of  them.  He  then  jocularly  said,  don't 
IMredict  so  any  more.  I  answered  I  should  not ; 
for  it  was  the  last  time  this  Bank  would  su»- 
pend. 

Still  dominating  over  the  moneyed  systems 
of  the  South  and  West,  this  former  colossal  insti- 
tution was  yet  able  to  cany  along  with  her  near- 
ly all  the  banks  of  one-hiJf  of  the  Union :  and 
unng  her  irredeemable  paper  against  the  solid 
currency  of  the  New  York  and  other  Northern 
banks,  and  selling  fictitious  bills  on  Europe,  she 
was  able  to  run  them  hard  for  specie— eiutail 
their  operations— and  make  panic  and  distress 
in  the  money  market.    At  the  same  time  by 


158 


THIRTY  YEARS*  VIEW. 


making  an  imposing  exhibition  of  her  assets, 
arranging  a  reciprocal  use  of  their  notes  with 
other  suspended  banks,  keeping  up  an  apparent 
par  yalue  for  her  notes  and  stocks  by  fictitious 
and  collusive  sales  and  purchases,  and  abore  all, 
by  her  political  connection  with  the  powerful 
opposition — she  was  enabled  to  keep  the  field 
as  a  bank,  and  as  a  political  power:  and  as  such 
to  act  an  effectiye  part  in  the  ensuing  presiden- 
tial election.  She  even  pretended  to  have  be- 
come stronger  since  the  time  when  Mr.  Biddle 
left  her  so  prosperous ;  and  at  the  next  exposi- 
tion of  her  afifairs  to  the  Pennsylvania  legis- 
lature (Jan.  1,  1840),  returned  her  assets  at 
974,603,142 ;  her  liabilities  at  $36,959,539,  and 
her  surplus  at  $37,643,603.  This  surplus,  after 
paying  all  liabilities,  showed  the  stock  to  be 
worth  a  premium  of  $2,643,603.  And  all  this 
duly  sworn  to. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

FIEST  SESSION  TWENTY-SIXTH  CONOBES8:  MEM- 
BEB3 :  ORGANIZATION:  POLITICAL  MAP  OF  THE 
HOUSE. 

Members  of  the  Senate. 

New  Hampshire. — Henry  Hubbard,  Franklin 
Pierce. 

Maine. — John  Rugbies,  Reuel  Williams. 

Massachusetts. — John  Davis,  Daniel  Web- 
ster. 

Vermont. — Sam'l  Prentiss,  Sam'l  S.  Phelps. 

Rhode  Island. — Kehemiah  R  Knight,  N.  F. 
Dixon. 

Connecticut.  —  Thaddeus  Betts,  Perry 
Smith. 

New  York.— Silas  Wrieht,  N.  P.  Tallmadge. 

New  JERSET.^^am'l  L  Southard,  Garret 
D.  Wall. 

Pennsylvania. — James  Buchanan,  Daniel 
Sturgeon. 

Delaware. — Thomas  Clayton. 

Maryland. — John  S.  Spence,  Wm.  D.  Mer^ 
rick. 

Virginia. — William  H.  Roane. 

North  Carolina. — Bedford  Brown,  R 
Strange. 

South  Carolina. — John  C.  Calhoun,  Wm. 
Campbell  Preston. 

Georgia. — Wilson  Lumpkm,  Alfred  Cuth- 
bert. 

Kentucky.— Henry  Clay,  John  J.  Critten- 
den. 

Tennessee.— Hugh  L.  White,  Alex.  An- 
derson. 


Ohio. — William  Allen,  Benjamin  Tappan. 

Indiana.— Oliver  H.  Smith,  Albert  S.  White- 

Mississippi. — Robert  J.  Walker,  John  Hen- 
derson. 

Louisiana. — Robert  C.  Nicholas,  Alexander 
Mouton. 

Illinois. — John  M.  Robinson,  Richard  M. 
Toung. 

Alabama. — Clement  C.  Clay,  Wm.  Rufus 
King. 

Missouri. — Thomas  H.  Benton,  Lewis  F. 
Linn. 

Arkansas. — William  S.  Fulton,  Ambrose 
Seyier. 

Michigan. — John  Norvell,  Augnstus  S.  Por- 
ter. 


^  Cliflfoid, 

Thomak  Dayee,  Geoige  Gzuu^  Joshua  A.  Lowell, 
Virgil  D.  Parris,  Benjamin   j^j^utell)    Albert 

Smith,  yr  I    "l)  s    £  0 

New  n^MPSHiRE. — Charles  G.  Athertoii, 
Edmund  Burke,  Ira  A.  Eastman,  Tristram  Shaw, 
Jared  W.  Williams.         T)  ^ 

Connecticut. — Josepn  Trumbull,  William 
L."^Storr8,  Thomas  W.  Williams,  Thomas  B. 
Osborne,  Truman  Smith,  John  H.  Brockway.'v  „ 

Vermont.  — Hiland    Hali,    William    §l»ie,  ^ 
Horace  Everett,  John  Smith,  Isaac  Fletcherr"^  : 

Massachusetis. — Abbot  Lawrence,  I^ererett 
Saltonstall,  Caleb  Cushine,  William  PaxuKmtef^ 
Levi  Lincoln,   [Vacancy,]  Geoi^  N.   Bngps, 
William  B.  CalhouoL  WilUam  S.  Hastings,  He>. 
ry  Williams,  John  Reed,  John  Quincy  Adams.  S 

Rhode  Island. — Chosen  by  general  ticket 
JosepETTTUIinghas^  Robert  B.  Cranston.  "V"* 

New  York. — Thomas  B.  Jackson,  James  ck 
la  Montayne,  Ogden  Hoffman,  Edward  Curtis. 
Moses  H.  Gnnnell,  James  Monroe,  GouTemeor 
Kemble,  Charles  «Fohnson,'  Nathaniel  Jones, 
Rufus  Sftk^i,  Aaroitt'  Vanderpoel,  John  Ely, 
Hiram  P.  Hunt,  Daniel  D.  Samaxd,  Anm 
Brown.  David  Russell,  Augustus  C.  Hand,  John 
fine,  Feter  JT  Wagoner,  Andrew  W. '  Doip, 
John  G.  Floyd,  David  P.  Brewster,  Thomas  C. 
Crittenden,  John  H.  Prentiss,  Judson  AUeo, 
Jdhn  C.  Clark,  S.  B.  Leonard,  Amasa  Dana, 
Edward  Kogefs,  Nehemiah  H.  Earl,  Christopher 
Morgan,  Theron  R.  Strong,  Francis  P.  .Q^nger, 
Meredith  Mallory,  Seth  M.  Qs^^  Luther  C. 
Peck,  Richard  P.  Marvin,  Millard  Fillm^[e, 
Charles  P.  Mitchell.      10      \C\ 

New^'Jersey. — Joseph  B.  Kandolph^  Peter 
D.  Vroom,  Phflemon  Dickerson.  William  R. 
Cooper,  Daniel  B.  Ryall,  Joseph  Kille. 

Pbnnsy^ania. — William  Beatty,  Richard 
Biddle,  James  Cfil42^r,  Edward  Davies,  John 
Cavis,  John  Edwards,  Joseph  Fomance^  John 
Galbraitli,  James  Gerry,  Robert  H.  Hammond, 
Thomas  Hgiry,  Enos  Hook,  Francis  J^es, 
George  AmCeim  Isaac  Leet,  Albert  GfTMar^ 
chand,  Samuel  W.  Morris,  George  McCuUoch, 
Charles  Naylor,  Peter  Newhard,  Charles  Ogle, 


ANNO  1889.    MA&TIN  VAN  BUBEN,  PRESIDENT. 


159 


Lemuel  Paynter,  DaTid  Petrildn,  William  S. 
Ramsey,  John  SermmjL  William  Simonton, 
George  W.  TolandJ  Davfa  D^Wagener.^  yJ  I 
DciDHQrAaE.— Thon^  Robi^Bon,  jr.  q  i  ^ 
MaWlamd. — Jame^^arrolL  John  Dennis^ 
SoIonk^^flltHai,  jr.,  Daniel  Jenifer,  WuluS 
Cost  Johnson,  Franda  Tfib^^is, 'Philip  F. 
Tho2hs,"7oIinT.  H.  WortM^;ton.  J  f 

Virginia. — Linn  >3ankB,    Andrew 
John  M.  Botts.  Walter  Ctritfi  Robert  . 

George  0.  Droiiigqol&  James  Garland  Wi 

L.  QijggUQU  John  Hill^  Joel  H^leman,  George 
W.  Hopkins,  RoBerTM.  T.  Hnnter,  Joseph 
Johnson,  John  W.  J'bros,  William  Lima, 
Ohanes  F.  Meroer,  Franciff^E.  Bites,  Green  B. 
Sainqels.  Lewis  StetnrocL  John  Taukferro,  Hen- 

XoRTH  Carolina. — ^Jesse  A.  Bj^ram,  Henry 
W.  Connor,  Edmund  Dfihfi^,  Charles  Fisher, 
James  prahanL  MicajahT.  Ha^t^ips,  John 
EtiU.  James  J.  MKay,  William  Montg<Rii«£y. 
Kenneth  Rayng,  uharies  Shbfi^d,  Eidward 
SiaolX^  Lewis  V£iUiain&  ^    7       ./ 

South  Carolina. — Sampson  H.  Bh^er«  John 
CampbelL  John  K.  Griffin,  Isaac  E.^olmes, 
Francis  W.  Pickens,  R.  Barnwell  Rhett  James 
Rogers,  Thomas  B.  Sumter,  Waddy  Thomp- 
son, jr.     /     /      7  '      ^ 

GEORoiA.--Julius  C.  Alford,  Edward  J. 
Black,  Walter  T.  Colqaitt,  Mark  A.  Cooper, 
WUllwu  C.  Dawson.  Richard  W.  Qabersham, 
Thomas  B.  ^^gxSngeniua  A.  {Jisbet,  Lott 

Alabama. — RT  H.  Ou^man,  Dayid  HuoWd, 
George  W.  Crabb,  Dixon  fi.  Lewis,  James  Dil- 
lett  -^ —  '     r-    J^  /      ^  — 

Louisiana.— Edward  D.  White,  Edward 
Chmnpltlce  Garland.       ''^^  J 

MissiH(ppL — A.  G.  Brown,  J.  Thompson^^  ? 

MidsQURL — John  Miller,  John  Jameson,  j^  ."- 

ARtfiyfSAS. — ^Edward  Cross.  ^  / 

Tennessee. — William  B.  Carter,  Abraham 
McC7Wlaii,^Joseph  L.  Williams,  Julias  W. 
BlaNn^ell,  Hopkins  L.  Tteey.  William  B. 
Campbell,  John  Bell,  Mer^ith  P.  Gentry, 
Harvey  M.  Wai^tton,  Aaron  V.  BK^yni,  Cave 
Joh^n,  John  W.  Crockett^  Christopher  H. 
Williams.  7      2 

Kentucky.— Linn  BoJ^iPhilip  Triplett,  Jo- 
seph  (Jnaerwood,  Sherrod  Williams,  Simeon  W. 
Anderson,  Willis  Green,  John  Pope,  William  J. 
Graves,  John  White,  Richard  Hawes,  L.  W. 
Andrews,  Garret  Davis,  William  0.  BWetM  U 

Omp. — ^Alexander  Du)k^,  John  B.  WelH^r, 
Patrick  G.  Goode,  Thoma^  Corwin,  William 
D<)lK(e,  Calvary  Morris,  William  K.  Bond,  Jo- 
seph Kidgvny,  William  M^iU,  Samson  Ma- 
son, Isaac  Pa^sh,  Jonathan  Ta«|[or,  D.  P.  Lead- 
bdlter,  GeorgeSwe^^f,  John  W.  Allen,  Jqghua 
R.  Uiddings,  John  Tlaslh^gs.  D.  A.  StiH^ 
weather,  Henry  Sw^?huren.  ^     /  ^ 

MicnpAN. — ^IsaaclK.  Cnuy.    ^  / 

Indiana. — Geo.  H.  jQsttS^t,  John  Davis,  John 
Carr,  Tnomas  Smith,  James  Rariden,  Wm.  W. 
Wick,  T.  A.  Howard.     /     6 


Il^ois.— John  Reynolds,  Zadok  Casey, 
John  T.  Stuart      /      -^ 

The  oiganiiation  of  the  House  was  delayed 
for  many  days  by  a  case  of  closely  and  earnest- 
ly contested  electbn  from  the  State  of  New 
Jersey.  Five  citizens,  to  wit:  John  B.  Ay- 
crigg^  John  B.  Maxwell,  William  Halsted, 
Thomas  C.  Stratton,  Thomas  Jones  Torke,  had 
received  the  governor's  certificate  as  duly  elect- 
ed :  five  other  citizens,  to  wit :  Philemon  Dick- 
erson,  Peter  D.  Yroom,  Daniel  B.  Ryall,  Wil- 
liam R.  Cooper,  John  Kille,  claimed  to  have 
received  a  majority  of  the  lawful  votes  g^ven  in 
the  election :  and  each  set  demanded  admission 
as  representatives.  No  case  of  contested  election 
was  ever  more  warmly  disputed  in  the  House. 
The  two  sets  of  claimants  were  of  opposite  politi- 
cal parties :  the  House  was  nearly  divided :  five 
from  one  side  and  added  to  the  other  would  make 
a  difierence  of  ten  votes :  and  these  ten  might 
determine  its  character.  The  first  struggle  was 
on  the  part  of  the  members  holding  the  certifi- 
cates claiming  to  be  admitted,  and  to  act  as  mem- 
bers, until  the  question  of  right  should  be  de- 
cided ;  and  as  this  would  give  them  a  right  to  vote 
for  speaker,  it  might  have  had  the  effect  of  decid- 
ing that  important  election :  and  for  this  point  a 
great  struggle  was  made  by  the  whig  party. 
The  democracy  could  not  ask  for  the  immediate 
admission  of  the  five  democratic  claimants,  as 
they  only  presented  a  case  which  required  to 
be  examined  before  it  could  be  decided.  Their 
course  was  to  exclude  both  sets,  and  send  them 
equally  before  the  committee  of  contested  elec- 
tions ;  and  in  the  mean  time,  a  resolution  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  organization  of  the  House  was 
adopted  after  an  arduous  and  protracted  struggle, 
in  which  every  variety  of  parliamentary  motion 
was  exhausted  by  each  side  to  accomplish  its  pur- 
pose ;  and,  at  the  end  of  three  months  it  was  re- 
ferred to  the  committee  to  report  which  five  of  the 
ten  contestants  had  received  the  greatest  number 
of  legal  votes.  This  was  putting  the  issue  on  the 
rights  of  the  voters — on  the  broad  and  popular 
ground  of  choice*  by  the  people :  and  was  equiv- 
alent to  deciding  the  question  in  favor  of  the 
democratic  contestants,  who  held  the  certificate 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  that  the  majority  of 
votes  returned  to  his  office  was  in  their  favor, — 
counting  the  votes  of  some  precincts  which  the 
governor  and  council  had  rejected  for  illegality 
in  holding  the  elections.    As  the  constitutional 


160 


THIRTY  TEARS' VIEW. 


judge  of  the  election,  qualifications  and  returns 
of  its  own  members,  the  House  disregarded  the 
decision  of  the  governor  and  councd ;  and,  de- 
ferring to  the  representatiye  principle,  made  the 
decision  turn,  not  upon  the  conduct  of  the  offi- 
cers holding  the  election,  but  upon  the  rights 
of  the  voters. 

This  strenuous  contest  was  not  terminated 
until  the  10th  of  March — ^nearly  one  hundred 
days  from  the  time  of  its  commencement  The 
five  democratic  members  were  then  admitted  to 
their  seats.  In  the  mean  time  the  election  for 
speaker  had  been  brought  on  by  a  vote  of  118 
to  110  —  the  democracy  having  succeeded  in 
bringing  on  the  election  after  a  total  exhaustion 
of  every  parliamentary  manoeuvre  to  keep  it  off. 
Mr.  John  W.  Jones,  of  Virginia,  was  the  demo- 
cratic nominee :  Mr.  Jno.  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  was 
nominated  on  the  part  of  the  whigs.  The  whole 
vote  given  in  was  235,  making  118  necessary  to 
a  choice.  Of  these,  Mr.  Jones  received  118 : 
Mr.  Bell,  102.  Twenty  votes  were  scattered, 
of  which  11,  on  the  whig  side,  went  to  Mr. 
Dawson  of  Georgia ;  and  9  on  the  democratic 
side  were  thrown  upon  three  southern  mem- 
bers. Had  any  five  of  these  nine  voted  for  Mr. 
Jones,  it  would  have  elected  lum:  while  the 
eleven  given  to  Mr.  Dawson  would  not  have  ef- 
fected the  election  of  Mr.  Bell.  It  was  clear  the 
democracy  had  the  majority,  for  the  contested 
election  from  New  Jersey  having  been  sent  to  a 
committee,  and  neither  set  of  the  contestants 
allowed  to  vote,  the  question  became  purely  and 
simply  one  of  party :  but  there  was  a  firaction 
in  each  party  which  did  not  go  with  the  party 
to  which  it  belonged :  and  hence,  with  a  ma- 
jority in  the  House  to  bring  on  the  election, 
and  a  majority  voting  in  it,  the  democratic 
nominee  lacked  five  of  the  number  requisite  to 
elect  him.  The  contest  was  continued  through 
five  successive  ballotings  without  any  better  re- 
sult for  Mr.  Jones,  and  worse  for  Mr.  Bell ;  and 
it  became  evident  that  there  was  a  fraction  of 
each  party  determined  to  control  the  election. 
It  became  a  question  with  the  democratic  party 
what  to  do  ?  The  fraction  which  did  not  go 
with  the  party  were  the  friends  of  Mr.  Calhoun, 
and  although  always  professing  democratically 
had  long  acted  T^th  the  whigs,  and  had  just  re- 
turned to  the  body  of  the  party  agunst  which 
they  had  been  acting.  The  election  was  in  their 
hands,  and  they  gave  it  to  be  known  that  if  one 
of  their  number  was  taken,  they  would  vote  with 


the  body  of  the  party  and  elect  him :  and  Mr. 
Dixon  n.  Lewis,  of  Alabama,  was  the  person 
indicated.  The  extreme  importance  of  having  a 
speaker  friendly  to  the  administration  induced 
idl  the  leading  friends  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  go 
into  this  arrangement,  and  to  hold  a  caucus  to 
cary  it  into  effect  The  caucus  was  held :  Mr. 
Lewis  was  adopted  as  the  candidate  of  the 
party:  and,  the  usual  resolves  of  unanimity 
having  been  adopted,  it  was  expected  to  elect 
him  on  the  first  trial  He  was  not,  however, 
80  elected ;  nor  on  the  second  trial ;  nor  on  the 
third;  nor  on  any  one  up  to  the  seventh: 
when,  having  never  got  a  higher  vote  than  Mr. 
Jones,  and  filing  off  to  the  one-half  of  it,  he 
was  dropped ;  and  but  few  knew  how  the  balk 
came  to  pass.  It  was  thus :  The  writer  of  this 
View  was  one  of  a  few  who  would  not  capitulate 
to  half  a  dozen  members,  known  as  Af  r.  Cal- 
houn's friends,  long  separated  from  the  party, 
bitterly  opposing  it,  just  returning  to  it,  and 
undertaking  to  govern  it  by  constitating  them- 
selves into  a  balance  wheel  between  the  tvo 
nearly  balanced  parties.  He  preferred  a  clean 
defeat  to  any  victory  gained  by  such  capitula- 
tion. He  was  not  a  member  of  the  House,  but 
had  friends  there  who  thought  as  he  did ;  and 
these  he  recommended  to  avoid  the  caucus,  and 
remain  unbound  by  its  resolves ;  and  when  the 
election  came  on,  vote  as  they  pleased  :  which 
they  did :  and  enough  of  them  throwing  awaj 
their  votes  upon  those  who  were  no  candidatea, 
thus  prevented  the  election  of  Mr.  Lewis :  and 
so  returned  upon  the  little  fruction  of  pretenden 
the  lesson  which  they  had  taught 

It  was  the  same  with  the  whig  party.  A 
fraction  of  its  members  refused  to  support  the 
regular  candidate  of  the  party ;  and  after  manj 
fruitless  trials  to  elect  him,  he  was  abandoned 
—Mr.  Robert  M.  T.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  taken 
up,  and  eventually  elected.  He  had  voted  with 
the  whig  party  in  the  New  Jersey  election  case 
— among  the  scattering  in  the  votes  for  speaker; 
and  was  finally  elected  by  the  full  whig  vote, 
and  a  few  of  the  scattering  firom  the  democratic 
ranks.  He  was  one  of  the  small  band  of  Mr. 
Calhoun's  friends ;  so  that  that  gentleman  suo- 
ceeded  in  governing  the  whig  election  of  speaker, 
after  failing  to  govern  that  of  the  democracy. 

In  looking  over  the  names  of  the  candidates 
for  speaker  it  will  be  seen  that  the  whole  wero 
Soutiiem  men— no  Northern  man  being  at  any 
time  put  in  nomination,  or  voted  for.    And  this 


ANNO  18S9.    MARTIN  TAN  BURSN,  PRESIDENT. 


161 


drcmnstaiioe  iUustrmtes  a  peryading  system  of 
action  between  the  two  sections  from  the 
foundation  of  the  goyemment — ^the  southern 
going  for  the  honors,  the  northern  for  the  bene- 
fits of  the  goyemment.  And  each  has  suooeeded, 
but  with  the  difference  of  a  success  in  a  solid 
and  in  an  empty  pursuit  The  North  has  be- 
come rich  upon  the  benefits  of  the  government : 
the  South  has  grown  lean  upon  its  honors. 

This  arduous   and   protracted   contest    for 
speaker,  and  where  the  issue  inyolyed  the  yital 
party  question  of  the  organization  of  the  House, 
and  where  every  member  classified  himself  by  a 
deliberate  and  perseyering  series  of  votes,  be- 
comes  important  in  a  political   classification 
point  of  view,  and  is  here  presented  in  detail  as 
'        the  political  map  of  the  House — ^taking  the  first 
'        vote  as  showing  the  character  of  the  whole. 
f  1.  Members  voting  for  Mr.  Jones :  113. 

I 

I  Jndson  Allen^ugh  J.  Anderson,  Charles  G. 

Atherton,  Linn  banks,  William  Beatty,  Andrew 
Beime,  Julius  W. Blackwell,  Linn  BoydDavid 
!  P.  Brewster,  Aaron  V.  Brown,  Albert  6.  ferown, 
t  Edmund  Burke,  Sampson  H.  Butler,  William 
,  O.  Butler,  Jesse  A.  Bviium,  John  Garr,  James 
CarrolL  Zadok  Casey,  Keuben  Chapman,  Nathan 
'  Clifford,  Walter  Coles,  Henry  W.  Connor.  Ro- 
I  bert  Craig,  Isaac  E.  Crary,  Edward  Cfross, 
Amasa  Dana,  Thomas  Davee,  John  Davis,  John 
W.  Davis,  William  Doan,  Andrew  W.  Doig, 
George  C.  Dromgoole,  Alexander  Duncan,  Ne- 
hemiah  H.  Earl,  Ira  A.  Eastman,  John  Ely, 
John  Fine,  Isaac  Fletcher,  John  G.  Floyd, 
Joseph  Fornance,  John  GalbraitlLJames  Gerry, 
Robert  H.  Hammond.  Augustus  C.  Hand,  Jolm 
Hastings,  Mici^ah  T.  Hawkins,  John  Hill  of 
North  Carolina,  Solomon  Hillen  jr.,  Joel  Holle- 
man,  Enos  Hook,  Tilghman  A.  Howard,  David 
Hubbard,  Thomas  B.  Jackson,  John  Jameson. 
Joseph  Johnson^  Cave  Johnson,  Nathanid 
Jones,  George  M.  Keim.  Gouvemeur  Kemble, 
Daniel  P.  Leadbetter,  Isaac  Leet,  St^hen  K 
Leonard,  Dixon  H.  Lewis,  Joshua  A  Lowell, 
William  Lucas,  Abraham  McLeHan,  George 
McCuUoch,  James  J.  McKay,  Meredith  Mallory, 
Albert  G.  Marchand,  William  MediU,  John 
Miller,  James  D.  L.  MontanyawWiliiiun  Mont- 
eomeiy.  Samuel  W.  Morris,  Peter  Newhard, 
Isaac  Parrish,  William  Parmenter^  Viigil  D. 
Parris,  Lemuel  Paynter,  David  Petnkin,  Francis 
W.  Pickens,  John  H.  Prentiss,  William  S.  Ram- 
sey, John  Reynolds,  R.  Barnwell  Rhett,  Francis 
E.  Rives,  Thomas  Robinson  jr.,  Edward  Rod- 
gers.  Green  B.  Samuels.  Tristram  Shaw,  Charles 
Shepard,  Albert  Smitn,  John  Smith,  Thomas 
Smith,  David  A.  Starkweather,  Lewis  Steenrod, 
Theron  R.  Strong,  Henir  Swearin^n,  George 
Sweeny;  Jonath^  Taylor.  Francis  Thomas, 
Philip  F.  Thomas,  Jacob  Thompson,  Hopkms 

Vol.  IL— 11 


L.  Tnmey^  Aaron  YanderpoeLDavid  D.  Wagner, 
Harvey  M.  Watterson,  John  B.  Welle]^Wil]iam 
W.  Wkk,  Jared  W.  Williams,  Henry  Williams, 
John  T.  H.  Worthington. 

2.  Members  voting  for  Mir.  Bell:  102. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  John  W.  Allen,  Simeon 

H.  Andenon,  Landaff  W.  Andrews,  Daniel  D. 
Barnard.  Richard  Biddle,  William  K.  Bond, 
John  M.  Botts,  George  N.  Briggs,  John  H. 
Brockway,  Anson  Brown,  William  B.  Calhoun, 
William  B.  Campbell,  YTilliam  B.  Carter,  Thom- 
as W.  Chinn,  Thomas  C.  Chittenden,  John  C. 
Clark,  James  Cooper,  Thomas  Corwin,  George 
W.Crabb,  Robt  B.  CnCDston^  John  W.  CrodLett, 
Edward  Curtis,  Caleb  Cushmg,  Edward  Davie& 
Garret  Davis,  William  C.  Dawson,  Edmund 
Deberry,  John  Dennis,  James  Dellet,  John  Ed- 
wards, George  Evans,  Horace  Everett  Millard 
FiUmorc,  Rice  Garland,  Seth  M.  Gates,  Meredith 
P.  Gentnr,  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  William  L. 
Goggin,  Patrick  G.  Gooda  «James  Graham, 
Francis  Granger:  Willis  Green,  William  J. 
Graves,  Moses  H.  Grinnell,  Hiland  Hall,  Wil- 
liam S.  Hastings,  Richard  Hawes,  Thomas  Hen- 
S',  John  Hill  of  Virginia,  Ogden  Hoffman, 
iram  P.  Hunt,  Francis  James,  Daniel  Jenifer, 
Charles  Johnston,  William  Cost  Johnson,  Ab- 
bott Lawrence,  Levi  Lincoln,  BIcbardP.  Marvin, 
Samson  Mason,  Charles  F.  Mercer,  Charles  F.  \ 
Mitchell,  James  Monroe,  Christopher  Morgan, 
Calvary  Morris,  Charles  Naylor,  Charles  Ogle, 
Thomas  B.  Osborne,  Rufus  Pal^  Luther  C. 
Peck.  John  Pope,  George  H.  Promt,  Benjamin 
Randall,  Joseph  F.  Randolph,  James  Rariden, 
Kenneth  Rayner  John  Reed,  Joseph  Ridgway, 
David  Russell,  Leverett  SaltonstaU,  John  Ser- 
geant, Willmm  Simonton,  William  Slade,  Tru- 
man smith,  Edward  Stanly.  William  L.  Storrs, 
John  T.  Stuart,  John  Taliaferro,  Joseph  L.  Til- 
linghast,  George  W.  Toland,  Philip  Triplett, 
Joseph  Trumbull,  Joseph  R,  Underwood,  Peter 
J.  Wagner,  Edward  D.  White,  John  White, 
Thomas  W.  Williams.  Lewis  WUliams,  Joseph 
L.  Williams,  Chiisto^er  H.  Williams,  Sherrod 
Williams,  Henry  A.  Wise, 

3.  Scattering:  20. 

The  following   named   members  voted  for 
William  C.  Dawson,  of  G^rgia. 

Julhis  C.  Alford,  John  Bel^  Edward  J.  Black, 
Richard  W.  Habersham,  Georse  W.  Hopkins,     ^ 
Hiram  P.  Hunt,  Williain  Cost  J  ohnson,  Thomas 
B.  King,  Eumiius  A.  Nisbet,  Waddy  Thomp- 
son jr.,  Lott  Warren. 

The  following  named  members  voted  fov  Dixon 
H.  Lewis,  of  Ajabama : 

John  Campbell  Mark  A.  Cooper^  John  K. 
GrifOn,  John  W.  Jones,  Walter  T.  Colquitt 

The  following   luuned    members  voted  for 
Francis  W.  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina: 

Charles  Fisher,  Isaac  K  Holmes,  Robert  M. 
T.  Hunter,  James  Rogers,  Thomas  B.  Sumter. 

James  Garland  voted  for  George  W.  Hopkins, 
of  Virginia* 


162 


THIRTY  YEARff  VIEW.' 


Charles  Ogle  voted  for  Robert  M.  T.  Hunter, 
of  Yiiginia. 


CHAPTER   XL. 

pHtST  SESSION  OF  THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  CON- 
GBESS:   PBESIDENT'S  MESSAGE. 

The  President  met  with  firmness  the  new  sus- 
pension of  the  banks  of  the  southern  and  west^ 
em  half  of  the  Union,  headed  by  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States.  Far  from  yielding  to  it  he 
persevered  in  the  recommendation  of  his  great 
measures,  found  in  their  conduct  new  reasons 
for  the  divorce  of  Bank  and  State,  and  pldnly 
reminded  the  delinquent  institutions  with  a  to- 
tal want  of  the  reasons  for  stopping  payment 
which  they  had  allied  two  years  before.  He 
said: 

"  It  now  appears  that  there  are  other  motives 
than  a  want  of  public  confidence  under  which 
the  banks  seek  to  justify  themselves  in  a  refusal 
to  meet  their  obligations.  Scarcely  were  the 
country  and  government  relieved,  in  a  degree, 
from  the  difficulties  occasioned  by  the  general 
suspension  of  1837,  when  a  partial  one,  occux^ 
ring  within  thirty  months  of  the  former,  pro- 
duced new  and  serious  embarrassments,  though 
it  had  no  palliation  in  such  circumstances  as 
were  alleged  in  justification  of  that  which  had 
previously  taken  place.  There  was  nothing  in 
the  condition  of  the  country  to  endanger  a  well- 
managed  banking  institution;  commerce  was 
deraneed  by  no  foreign  war ;  every  branch  of 
manufacturing  industry  was  crowned  with  rich 
rewards;  and  the  more  than  usual  abundance 
of  our  harvests,  after  supplying  our  domestic 
wants,  had  left  our  granaries  and  storehouses 
fillled  with  a  surplus  for  exportation.  It  is  in 
the  midst  of  this,  that  an  irredeemable  and  de- 
preciated paper  currency  is  entailed  upon  the 
people  by  a  large  portion  of  the  banks.  They 
are  not  driven  to  it  by  the  exhibition  of  a  loss 
of  public  confidence ;  or  of  a  sudden  pressure 
from  their  depositors  or  note-holder&  but  they 
excuse  themselves  by  alleging  that  the  current 
of  business,  and  exchange  with  foreign  coun- 
tries, which  draws  the  precious  metals  from 
their  vaults,  would  require^  in  order  to  meet  it, 
a  larger  curtailment  of  their  loans  to  a  compai^ 
aiively  small  portion  of  the  community,  thui  it 
will  be  convenient  for  them  to  bear,  or  perhaps 
saib  for  the  banks  to  exact.  The  plea  has 
ceased  to  be  one  of  necessity.  Convenience 
and  policy  are  now  deemed  sufficient  to  wai> 
rant  these  institutions  in  disregarding  their 
solemn  obligations.    Such  conduct  is  not  mere- 


ly an  injury  to  individual  creditors,  bat  it  is  m 
wrong  to  the  whole  community,  nrom  whose 
liberality  they  hold  most  valuable  privileges — 
whose  rights  they  violate,  whose  business  they 
derange,  and  the  value  of  whose  property  they 
render  unstable  and  insecure.  It  most  be  evi- 
dent that  this  new  ground  for  bank  suspen- 
sions, in  reference  to  which  their  actio